


Tormented by the Past

by IAmTheBadWolf1990



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Case Fic, Developing Relationship, Eventual Smut, F/M, Phone Sex, Post-Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:20:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 45,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25972777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmTheBadWolf1990/pseuds/IAmTheBadWolf1990
Summary: Lucifer is back from Hell and is adjusting to life back on Earth as well as can be expected, but he isn't the only one dealing with issues from the past. Chloe is still having trouble with old insecurities, and the serial killer who is targeting people involved in her past cases is not helping matters.
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Comments: 250
Kudos: 516





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't finished this one yet but I thought I had better get it started before Season 5 comes out and this fic no longer works with canon. I have 5 (almost 6) chapters done, so I will be attempting to keep to a weekly schedule, and hopefully that will give me enough time to finish the rest.
> 
> Chapters will be posted on Tuesdays.

Chloe couldn’t help but smile when she heard the sound of Lucifer’s corvette rolling up to the crime scene. God how she had missed that sound! It was funny, even after three weeks of Lucifer being back, she still found small things like this that she hadn’t even realised she had missed until she experienced them again.

It had been a _long_ six months.

But she couldn’t complain too much, while it had only been six months for her (six terrible, heartbreaking months), for Lucifer it had been far longer. About a century, he had said. The smile slowly slid off Chloe’s face at the thought; it must have been, well… Hell.

But then Lucifer was ducking under the police tape, taking off his sunglasses and smiling a thousand-watt smile at her, and Chloe allowed herself to be brought back into the present. He was here now; the demons were taken care of and wouldn’t be coming back to Earth, and Chloe and Lucifer could finally be together.

‘Morning, Detective,’ greeted Lucifer, walking up to her, and Chloe had the sudden urge to grab him by the collar of his shirt and kiss him senseless.

But she didn’t.

Partly because it would be inappropriate considering their location, and partly because they had decided to take Linda’s advice and take their new relationship slowly to begin with, which meant that they hadn’t actually told anyone at work about said new relationship.

‘Morning,’ she said instead, hoping her smile showed him how glad she was that he was back by her side.

‘So, what dastardly deed are we investigating today?’ asked Lucifer as they walked up to where forensics were busy taking pictures and sweeping the scene for evidence. In centre of all the organised chaos was one man, their Victim of the Week.

The man was sitting upright on the bench with his head slouched slightly forward. If it weren’t for all the blood, he would almost look like he was just having a rest after a run. His shorts and tank top combo certainly seemed like the clothing of a jogger, and the man was obviously in shape.

‘I knew there was a reason I hated jogging,’ quipped Lucifer, looking over the man who was probably not that much older than Chloe.

‘What do we have, Ella?’ asked Chloe, ignoring Lucifer inappropriateness (another thing she had secretly missed).

Ella straightened up from where she was taking a picture of the blood that had dripped onto the ground. ‘Looks like this poor guy was killed right here on the bench,’ she said. ‘But there are no defensive wounds, so my guess is whoever it was snuck up behind him, and…’ She pulled the man’s head up to reveal the giant gash on his neck, the obvious source of the blood.

Ella gently lowered the man’s head back down. ‘A pretty ballsy move if you ask me. I mean, it’s a pretty popular track.’ She gestured to the small group of runners who had stumbled across the crime scene since it was called in less than an hour ago.

Chloe nodded. ‘So, either this was a crime of opportunity, or the killer didn’t care about the body being found.’

‘What about the cut on his forehead?’ Lucifer asked Ella. ‘That’s a bit odd, isn’t it?’

Ella perked up at that, always happy to talk forensics. ‘I know, right?’ She crouched down next to the body and Chloe did the same so she could properly see the cut Lucifer was talking about. It was a single vertical line in the middle of the forehead. It looked quite deep for a head wound, but there was not a lot of blood dripping from it.

‘It was made postmortem,’ said Ella, confirming what Chloe was thinking, ‘which is pretty lucky for this dude because it almost goes right down to the bone. It would have hurt like Hell.’

Chloe could almost feel the way Lucifer stiffened at Ella’s words; even though he was still standing a foot or so behind her, the tension was almost tangible. Since he had returned, he had barely mentioned Hell at all to Chloe, despite her many efforts to get him to talk about it. Whenever she tried, he would close himself off or get snappy about it, and in the end, Chloe had backed off, deciding to let Linda handle that one. She just hoped that one day he would be ready to open up to her about it.

‘How long has he been dead?’ she asked Ella, hoping to bring Lucifer back to the case and away from whatever memories of Hell he was reliving.

‘TOD is estimated at about 5am. So, early riser this one. Unlike me, I’d sleep till noon every day if I could.’

Chloe hummed an agreement, not really listening anymore. She squinted at the man’s face; he looked somewhat familiar.

‘Do we have an ID yet?’ she asked.

Ella shook her head. ‘Not yet. The man wasn’t carrying anything other than a water bottle and car keys so all his identification and whatnot is probably in his car. Mitchells has the keys if you wanted to go searching.’

Chloe gave the man’s face one more glance over, trying to recall where she had seen him before, and then stood up, nearly falling back down again when she bumped into Lucifer who was now standing a lot closer than he had been before. Thankfully, his reflexes were quicker than hers and his hands shot out to grab her hips to steady her.

‘Apologies, Detective,’ he said, voice close to her ear, and Chloe had to suppress the shiver that threatened to go through her. After a moment, he let go of her and took a step back, taking the heat of his body with him.

Chloe couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.

‘So, uh, Mitchells, you said?’ she asked Ella, ignoring the way the forensic scientist was looking suggestively between her and Lucifer.

Ella nodded her head towards one of the unis at the edge of the crime scene. ‘He’s over there.’

Chloe nodded her thanks, cleared her throat awkwardly, and headed off towards Officer Mitchells, Lucifer following close behind. ‘So, I guess we’re going car hunting?’ he asked once he had fallen into stride beside her.

‘I guess so,’ said Chloe, eager to put her focus back on the case. Being close to Lucifer was always hard on her self-control, but these past weeks it had been nearly unbearable. Though they hadn’t crossed that final line yet (taking it slow, remember), there had been more than a few heavy make-out sessions lately and now that Chloe knew what it was like to properly touch him and to be touched by him, she found herself wanting that touch more and more.

‘And just how many carparks are there along this jogging track?’ asked Lucifer. ‘Assuming he even parked at one of them and not on the side of the road somewhere.’

Chloe smirked at the disdain in Lucifer’s voice, though she didn’t relish in the task ahead either.

‘Six.’

Lucifer’s shoulder’s slumped. ‘A hundie says it’s in the very last one,’ he said.

Chloe was almost tempted to take him up on that, the odds were in her favour, but resisted. ‘It’s not that bad,’ she told him. ‘They’re not that far apart and, if you’re good, I’ll even let you drive.’

Lucifer’s mood instantly brightened at that.

\----

It was a good thing that Chloe hadn't taken that bet because Lucifer had been right. Their victim’s car had been in the very last carpark on their list. But at least they had an ID now. Their victim was a Mr Wade Timberton, age 43. The victim's name had struck the same familiar chord that his face had done, but Chloe still couldn’t place either.

It was beyond frustrating.

Talking to the next of kin, Wade’s girlfriend, had not been very enlightening as she and Wade had only known each other for a few months, and he had no other known family, so when Chloe got back to the station, she sat at her desk for a solid 10 minutes, just staring at a scanned picture of Wade’s driver’s licence on her computer.

‘Miss Lopez has the tox results from our unfortunate jogger.’ Lucifer’s voice came out of nowhere, making Chloe jump. She looked up and saw that he was right beside her; she hadn’t even heard him approach. He regarded her quizzically, tilting his head slightly. ‘Is everything alright, Detective?’ he asked. ‘You’re not normally this jumpy.’

Chloe sat back in her chair and let out a sigh. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just-’ she waved her hand out to indicate the driver’s licence on her screen, ‘-this guy is really familiar. I’m sure I’ve seen him before, but I can’t think where from.’ She looked up to Lucifer, suddenly hopeful. ‘Do you recognise him? Wade Timberton, ring any bells?’

Lucifer leaned over the back of Chloe’s chair, a little closer than a work partner probably should, and studied the screen. ‘I’m afraid not, Detective,’ he said, pulling back. He got out his phone and started tapping away.

Chloe stretched her neck a bit so she could see what he was doing. ‘Are you seriously checking IMDB? He works in a gym.’

Lucifer shrugged. ‘You never know; it is LA. It’s not that unlikely that this fellow has had some acting jobs as well as his boring one. Maybe you recognise him from a bit-part on some show or movie.’

Chloe couldn’t argue with that one. There were plenty of aspiring actors out there working 9 to 5 jobs until they got their “big break”.

Alas, according to IMDB, Wade Timberton wasn’t one of them.

‘Well that rules that out then,’ said Lucifer, tucking his phone back in his pocket.

‘Thanks anyway,’ said Chloe, giving him a grateful smile. She looked back to Wade’s licence. ‘I’m thinking it might be from a case, though. He’s not a perp, his prints aren’t in the system and he doesn’t have a record, but a witness maybe? Or a friend or family member?’

‘Well if he was, it wasn’t a case I worked on,’ said Lucifer. ‘I have an excellent memory.’ His smile faded for a second, reminding Chloe that an excellent memory wasn’t necessarily a good thing when one has spent a considerable amount of time in Hell. She reached out and squeezed his hand, making Lucifer startle slightly, but his smile soon returned, albeit less bright, and he squeezed her hand in return.

‘So, what was that you said about Ella?’ she asked, knowing that Lucifer wouldn’t want to discuss where his mind had just wandered off to.

Judging by the look in his eyes, Lucifer was grateful for the change of topic. ‘She has the tox results,’ he said. ‘Apparently there is something of note in them.’

Chloe stood up and gathered Wade's casefile in case she needed it. ‘I guess we had better go see what she’s got for us then.’

\----

‘So, this was deffo not a crime of opportunity,’ said Ella, waving a sheet of paper in front of Chloe’s face. Chloe tried to make a grab for it, but Ella was still waving her hands about excitedly, making the task impossible. ‘Our jogger was roofied. We found traces of Rohypnol in his system. So weird, right? How do you roofie a jogger on their run? The obvious answer would be to spike their water bottle, and, yeah, that is the answer.’ She pointed to the half-empty water bottle that was in an evidence bag on one of her benches. ‘There are substantial traces of the drug in the water, _buuuut_ the interesting question is…?’

She looked at Chloe and Lucifer expectantly, waiting for them to finish her sentence for her.

‘How did the killer even get the drug in the water bottle in the first place?’ said Chloe.

Ella’s face lit up. ‘Exactly.’

‘Maybe he wasn’t jogging alone,’ pondered Chloe out loud. ‘The girlfriend had said he usually jogged alone, but he did have some buddies at the gym who also jogged. Maybe one of them used the run as an excuse to get Wade alone, got a hold of the water bottle somehow, waited for the effects to kick in…’

‘And then pulled out a hidden knife from somewhere and slit his throat,’ finished Lucifer, dubiously.

Chloe’s shoulders slumped a bit. Jogging with a hidden knife didn’t sound very plausible when said out loud - unless they were talking about Maze, of course - but it was still the best lead they had so far, so Chloe was going to run with it until another theory presented itself.

‘Well, we have to question the co-workers anyways, so, it's worth running with for now.’

Lucifer snorted. ‘ _Running_ with. Good one, Detective.’

Chloe rolled her eyes at the pun, even it was one that she herself had unintentionally made. ‘I already have the gym's address so…’ She was going to suggest going straight there, but she trailed off as she remembered that she and Lucifer had plans for the night. He was taking her to the premier of the _Class of 3001_ movie and she needed time to get ready for it; it wasn’t exactly the event of the year, but there would still be a few of the actors present and therefore media and paparazzi present also, so she had to make at least some effort on her appearance. ‘We can go straight there first thing in the morning,’ she finished, a little dejectedly.

‘Tomorrow?’ asked Ella, clearly expecting Chloe to want to jump straight onto the new lead.

Chloe cleared her throat awkwardly. ‘It’s getting late and I have to pick up Trixie from her friend’s place, so, yeah tomorrow.’

Judging by the suspicious way Ella was looking at her, Chloe hadn’t quite been as subtle as she had hoped for, but thankfully Ella let the matter drop.

‘Okay, well enjoy your night, then,’ she said, and Chloe gave her a grateful smile before turning and exiting the lab as fast as possible without drawing even more suspicion.

She missed the wink that Ella gave Lucifer before he followed her out.

\----

Chloe was sitting on her bed in her underwear, deep in thought, her dress laid out on the covers beside her, and Wade’s casefile laid out in front. She had gone over what little they knew about Mr Timberton so many times now that she could probably recite it all by heart, but she was still no closer to remembering where she had seen him before. It was really starting to annoy her. So much so that she had mentally started going through some of her old cases, trying to place him in various roles to see if anything clicked. Nothing had so far, but Chloe had worked a lot of cases over her almost 10 years of being a detective (plus her time as a uniformed officer), so there were still plenty more possibilities to go through.

‘Well the paparazzi will definitely be having a profitable night if that’s all you’re wearing to the premier.’ Lucifer’s voice made Chloe jump and she looked up to see him leaning against the doorframe, looking very debonair in the tux he had chosen for the night. His gaze travelled over her, lingering a tad too long in certain places. ‘Not that I’m complaining.’

Chloe rolled her eyes and resisted the urge to cover herself with her bed covers; he had seen her in less than her underwear before. Though that had been _before_ they had started dating.

‘Yeah, sorry, I got a bit distracted,’ she said, forcing herself to look away from the casefile and to the dress beside her. She grabbed it and hastily threw it on over her head. She heard Lucifer stifle a laugh, but she ignored him.

‘It’s just this Timberton case is really bugging me, you know,’ she continued once the dress was properly on and in place. ‘I’m trying to think of old cases that he could have been involved with, but so far it’s not helping.’

Lucifer nudged himself off the doorframe and walked over to her. He put his hands on her shoulders comfortingly. ‘I’m sure you’ll figure it out, Detective. You always do.’

Chloe gave him a grateful smile, though her doubt in his words must have shone through because Lucifer let out a sigh and his shoulders drooped. ‘This is really bothering you, isn’t it?’

Chloe nodded.

‘And you’re sure our jogger was part of one of your old cases?’

Anther nod.

‘Would it help to have someone to bounce ideas off of, or to tell stories of your old cases to?’

Chloe gave him another grateful smile at the offer. ‘We have the movie premier,’ she reminded him.

‘Would it help?’ Lucifer repeated and Chloe knew that she couldn’t lie to him.

‘Yeah, it would,’ she admitted.

‘Then that’s what we’ll do,’ said Lucifer simply.

‘But what about the premier?’ Chloe asked. ‘You used that favour for me, we shouldn’t waste it. We should go.’

Lucifer smiled softly at her. ‘Would you honestly be able to enjoy the movie?’ he asked. ‘Or would you be constantly fretting over this newest puzzle?’

Chloe had to admit, he had her there.

She let out a sigh and leaned forward to rest her forehead against his chest. Lucifer wrapped his arms around her in a loose embrace. ‘I’d be focusing on the case,’ she admitted.

Even though she couldn’t see him, she knew that Lucifer was smirking. It was practically audible.

‘That’s what I thought,’ he said. ‘So how about we skip the movie, I’ll cook us a meal, and you can tell me all about how dull your work life was before I came along.’

Chloe chuckled. ‘That sounds perfect, actually.’ She pulled back slightly to look up at him. ‘Though I’m starting to think you just want to get out of seeing the movie.’ It was no secret that Lucifer had not exactly been as excited about the movie as Chloe had been, which had made the fact that he had wanted to take her so much more meaningful.

Lucifer put his hand on his chest and gasped in mock offence. ‘I would never,’ he said, eliciting another chuckle from Chloe. He lowered his hand and his expression sobered. ‘I would do anything for you, Detective,’ he said softly.

And didn’t that just melt Chloe’s heart.

‘I know you would, babe,’ she said, standing up on her tip toes to give him a soft kiss. ‘And the feeling is entirely mutual.’ She gave him another kiss, this one a little longer than the last. ‘Thank you,’ she said once she had pulled away again. ‘I promise I will make it up to you.’

‘No need,’ said Lucifer. 

Chloe vowed to herself that she would anyway.

‘ARE YOU GUYS LEAVING OR ARE YOU TOO BUSY BONING?’

Maze’s voice travelled up the stairs at an impressive volume, making Chloe worry about what the neighbours would think, not to mention her eleven-year-old daughter. But then she caught the way that Lucifer was struggling not to laugh, and all worry faded away, replaced by loving amusement.

‘We’ll be down in a minute,’ Lucifer yelled out once he had composed himself enough to speak. He looked back down to Chloe and reluctantly took a step back. ‘I suppose we had better go inform Maze and the Urchin of the change of plans. No doubt Maze will stay for the meal and then bugger off before the washing up.’

Chloe let out another small chuckle and nodded. ‘Probably,’ she agreed. ‘Why don’t you head down, and I’ll join you in a minute after I get changed.’

Lucifer gave her dress another once over with an appreciative gaze and then gave an entirely put on sigh. ‘If you must.’

Chloe rolled her eyes fondly. ‘Yes, I must.’ She made a shooing motion with her hands. ‘Now go, otherwise you won’t have time to sneak a piece of the cake that Maze brought Trixie - the one they think I don’t know about.’

Lucifer’s mouth split into a wide grin, his eyes sparkling with all too familiar mischief, and two seconds later he was out the door. Chloe turned to pick out something more comfortable to change into but then paused when she heard Trixie’s delighted squeal echo up the stairs. No doubt Lucifer had just told her about the change of plans for the night.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she silently crept halfway down the stairs to listen.

‘Can I help cook?’ she heard Trixie ask, and she could picture the exact face her daughter would be making, all pleading and puppy dog eyes. A face not even the Devil could resist.

And sure enough...

‘I suppose so,’ Lucifer sighed. ‘So long as you wash your hands and don’t touch any of the knives or the stove. We don’t want you injuring yourself. Your mother would kill me.’

‘I promise,’ said Trixie with a bit more enthusiasm than sincerity, and Lucifer started giving her directions on how to help prepare the pasta side of the meal.

Chloe spent a minute or two on the stairs, smiling as she listened to Lucifer and Trixie make small talk with the occasional input from Maze. After everything that it took to get to this point, they deserved this, she thought.

They deserved a chance to be happy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How good was season 5, right?!?!
> 
> But yeah, this story is now officially canon-divergent.

Lucifer had helped Chloe go over her past cases long into the night, but their efforts had paid off. Chloe was now 90% sure she knew where she recognised Wade from. And, after a quick search on the police database once she had gotten to work, her suspicions were confirmed.

Wade Timberton had been a witness in Chloe’s very first case as a detective. The case had been the murder of a young woman and all signs had pointed to the boyfriend, a man named Chris Lough, but they had not had any concrete evidence… until Wade had come forward, letting them know about a car that he had seen speeding past his house (which was just two streets away from where the body was found) on the night of the murder. Wade hadn’t known if it was related or not, but after hearing about the murder, he had thought he had better report it. And in doing so, he had given Chloe and her partner concrete proof that Chris had been in the area at the time of the murder. After that, Chris's story had fallen apart and he had eventually confessed.

So now Chloe had a new suspect. After all, Wade had been the reason Chris had been caught. Maybe he wanted revenge for that?

It made for a good motive, but according to the case file, Chris was still in prison. Still, it was entirely possible to orchestrate a murder form behind bars if you had the right contacts. But it did raise the question... after almost ten years, why kill Wade now?

Something didn’t quite sit right about this new theory, and Chloe’s gut told her that they were barking up the wrong tree, but she still had to investigate the lead. So she called the prison, set up a meeting with Mr Lough for that afternoon, and then went to fetch Lucifer from the snack machine he was shamelessly stealing from so that they could go visit the gym Wade had worked at.

\----

Talking to Wade’s co-workers did not reveal much at all. While Wade had been fairly well-liked, only a few people had hung out with him socially, only one of whom was a jogger - and she had a rock-solid alibi. It didn’t totally rule out the possibility of the killer having accompanied Wade on his jog, but the idea was seeming less likely.

Chloe hoped their other lead might prove more promising.

‘Who’s Wade Timberton?’ asked Chris Lough with total sincerity, and Chloe felt like banging her head against the table in front of her. She and Lucifer were sitting across from Mr Lough in one of the rooms the prison had set aside for interviews like this, and, so far, he had not given off any red flags whatsoever. He seemed genuinely confused as to why they were questioning him.

‘Wade Timberton is the reason why your sorry excuse for an arse is in here for the next decade or so,’ said Lucifer, leaning forward to take up as much space at the table as possible. ‘Revenge is quite a good reason for wanting someone dead, don’t you think?’

Chris squirmed a little, but Chloe suspected that that had more to do with the intensity of Lucifer’s gaze rather than guilt. ‘Not really,’ he said, looking down at his hands. ‘And I’ve got no one to blame but myself for being here. I’m the one who killed Shelly.’

Lucifer scoffed and, before Chloe could stop him, stood up and rounded the table. ‘I’m afraid this charade of remorse won’t work on me,’ he told Chris, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. ‘Now, tell me the truth,’- his eyes flashed red -‘or you’ll find out what it truly means to be on the Devil’s bad side.’ 

Chris’s eyes widened in fear and he started to tremble in Lucifer’s grasp. ‘I- I didn’t have a-anything to do with the man’s death. Please don’t hurt me.’

Chloe believed him, but Lucifer evidently did not. He picked Chris up by the shirt he was still clutching and slammed him against the wall. ‘I SAID THE TRUTH!’ he yelled, his skin turning red and scarred as his devil form manifested.

‘Lucifer!’ shouted Chloe, jumping up from her seat and running around the table. Things had gotten way out of hand and it was time to step in. She put a gentle hand on Lucifer’s shoulder. ‘That’s enough.’ It took a couple of seconds, but eventually she felt the tension in his shoulders ease, and his skin returned to its usual paleness. He let Chris go without finesse, dropping the whimpering man on the floor, and then took a step away.

He didn’t look at Chloe once.

On the floor, Chris quickly backed himself into the corner of the small room and did his best to curl up into a ball. ‘I didn’t kill that guy,’ he said, looking pleadingly at Chloe over the tops of his knees. ‘I swear.’

Chloe gave him a short nod and called for the guards who were waiting just outside the door, gently tugging Lucifer further away from Chris as she did so. Once she was sure the guards could handle Chris – not that he was in any shape to cause trouble – she motioned Lucifer out the door and they quickly made their way out of the prison and back to Chloe’s cruiser.

Neither of them said a word the entire time. Only once she was seated in the driver’s seat with Lucifer sitting stiffly in the passenger seat beside her, did Chloe finally speak.

‘Do you want to talk about what just happened?’ she asked gently.

Lucifer fidgeted awkwardly. ‘I’d rather not, if that’s okay with you, Detective,’ he said.

It wasn’t okay; Chloe desperately wanted him to talk to her – to let her in and let her help him – but she knew from experience that pushing for it would be a bad idea. Lucifer would come to her eventually, she just had to be patient.

‘Okay,’ she told him, voice still gentle. ‘Just…’ She trailed off, not wanting to overstep.

But Lucifer wasn’t letting her off that easily.

‘Just what, Detective?’

Chloe sighed, defeated. ‘Just, if you can’t talk to me about it, at least talk to Linda. I understand Hell has left you with some… issues-’ Lucifer scoffed at the understatement ‘-but I can’t have you overreacting like you did in there. We can’t scare answers out of every suspect; not all of them will be murderers. And I don’t want you unintentionally punishing innocent people, and I know you don’t want that either.’ 

Lucifer took a minute to mull over what Chloe had said and eventually gave her a small nod. Chloe didn’t know if that nod meant that he would talk to Linda, or just that he understood what Chloe was saying, but either way she was grateful.

‘Thank you,’ she told him, reaching over to give his hand a quick squeeze. He squeezed her own fingers in return and she gave him a small smile before letting go of his hand so she could start the car. Their newest lead had dried up in record time, which meant they were back to the drawing board; they had to go back to the station to comb through all the evidence again. It would probably mean another pointless conversation with Wade’s girlfriend and another pointless trip to his gym, but if that’s what it took to find his killer, then that’s what Chloe would do. She didn’t like cold cases.

\----

Lucifer fidgeted with his cufflinks as he tried to avoid Linda’s knowing gaze. He had thought his therapy sessions had been difficult before, but they had been nothing compared to the ones he had had since returning from Hell. Even though a century was a mere blip considering the time he had spent there overall, this time it had been different, and Linda had been quick to point that fact out. He had had to put back up all those walls that had managed to slowly crumble during his vacation on Earth, and he was finding it difficult to let them fall again.

Which is why his sessions with Linda were so hard. It felt like he was starting over, except this time there was no sex to look forward to.

‘I think we both know why you overacted,’ said Linda, having just been told the whole horrid story of what had occurred during Chris Lough’s interview. ‘So, the real question is, are you ready to admit it?’

Lucifer let out a huff of frustration and leaned back against the couch. ‘What would be the point?’ he grumbled. ‘You already know, so why does it matter if I say it?’

‘Because saying something out loud helps make us accept that it’s real.’ Linda’s voice was as calm and as patient as ever despite the fact that she had only just come back after maternity leave and was still clearly not getting enough sleep. Lucifer had to hand it to her, she was handling being mother to a half-angel baby amazingly well. ‘And only once we accept that an issue is real, can we move past it,’ she finished.

Lucifer knew she was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to admit that he was struggling to adapt to life back on Earth. All the other times he had come topside, he had immediately immersed himself in alcohol, drugs, sex, and all-round partying. There had been no need to really change his behaviourisms.

But, as already established, this time was _different_. This time he had people he cared about – people whose opinions of him mattered – and he didn’t want them to think him weak, or worse, the monster Hell had demanded him to be – a monster that was still simmering beneath the surface.

Accepting the inevitable, he sat up and braced his shoulders, a defensive stance that did not go unnoticed by Linda, he was sure. ‘When I finally got the demons under control and felt it safe to leave Hell again,’ he began, ‘I thought I would be able to just slip right back into my life here. I thought it would be easy to forget.’ He let out a humourless laugh. ‘I should have known better, I suppose. The very nature of Hell is to make sure you don’t forget it.’

When Linda said nothing, he continued.

‘Being Hell’s King had never been easy, but at least before, I had the demons’ respect and fear to keep them in line. I am an archangel, after all, and to them I was all-powerful. But after Dromos’s little adventure proved that I have things and people that I care about… well, caring is the greatest weakness one can have in Hell. I lost their respect… so I had to rely on their fear of me to stop them from disobeying or just straight up killing me. What I had to do… it wasn’t pleasant, even by my standards.’

‘And what was it that you had to do?’ asked Linda, finally speaking.

Lucifer grimaced. ‘I’d rather not go into the details, if that’s alright, Doctor. Let’s just say I made an example of any demon who crossed me and leave it at that.’

Linda nodded but her eyes told him that they would probably be revisiting the subject at a later date.

The point is,’ Lucifer continued, ‘whatever action I took had to be immediate and merciless, the opposite of what working with the Detective is supposed to be, and I find I’m having trouble remembering that.’

‘Which is why you went straight to scare tactics to get the information you wanted from your suspect today,’ said Linda, filling in the gaps.

Lucifer sniffed and looked away, not wanting to meet her knowing gaze. After a few seconds, he gave a short nod.

‘I see that your difficulty in adjusting back to life on Earth is troubling you,’ said Linda in what Lucifer liked to call her “therapist voice” – the one that was calm and understanding, yet firm and authoritative at the same time, ‘and I think that that may be part of the problem. You’re ashamed that you haven’t been able to leave Hell behind yet; you see it as a weakness. And, as you say, for the past century, having any weakness was a death sentence.’

‘A point to this little summary would be nice,’ said Lucifer, irritably. Linda didn’t deserve his snappy tone, but it was a touchy subject and he didn’t have her patience. Sue him.

But Linda was unfazed by his sudden frustration, far too used to it by now. ‘My point is that you are stuck in a loop. You want to work through your difficulties but working through them means revealing a weaker part of yourself, which causes your instincts from living in Hell to kick back in, and you’re back to square one. You need to break that loop.’

Great. More loops. Just another thing he managed to bring back from Hell, he supposed.

‘So how do I break it?’ he asked, still irritated, but he was pretty sure Linda saw the desperate begging behind his mask.

She gave him a sympathetic smile. Yep, she definitely saw through him.

‘With difficulty,’ she answered. Lucifer was grateful for her honesty, but it still wasn’t the answer he was hoping for. ‘And with help,’ she added. ‘Today was a great start, and the more you open up about what you went through – the more you let yourself be vulnerable – and see that nobody here will judge you or try to kill you for it, the easier it will be for you to distinguish the differences between Hell and Earth. The first step relies on trust, something I know you struggle with.’

Lucifer opened his mouth to remind Linda of why exactly that was, but she put up a hand to stop him.

‘Something which is totally understandable given the circumstances,’ she said, and Lucifer clicked his mouth shut and settled back into his seat. ‘So maybe start with something small and work your way up to the big stuff. Have you talked to Chloe at all about Hell?’

Lucifer started fidgeting with his cufflink again. ‘A bit,’ he answered honestly while still dodging the true extent of his avoidance of the subject. ‘Mainly reassurances that the demons are dealt with.’

‘But you haven’t gone into detail?’

‘I’m sure the Detective doesn’t want to hear about the politics of Hell.’

Linda made a dispassionate hum but didn’t call him out on his obvious deflection of the truth. ‘Well, like I said, start small. You may be surprised by what she is capable of understanding. What she is capable of forgiving.’

Lucifer nodded, thoughtfully. Chloe had already proven herself to be much more forgiving than most; from leaving her and coming back married, to breaking Julian’s back, she had always gotten past his mistakes and let him back into her life.

But what he was in Hell was so much worse than both of those things combined… could she get past that?

Part of him never wanted to find out, but then he would never break himself out of the loop he was in. And Linda was right, he needed to break it. So, he would take her advice… eventually. He just needed more time. He had only just gotten the chance to truly be with Chloe, and he wasn’t ready for her to start looking at him differently, whether it be with pity or with mortification.

They were happy together… he wasn’t ready to lose that yet.


	3. Chapter 3

Three days had passed since Wade Timberton’s body was found, and Chloe not only had no suspects, she didn’t even have a _single lead_. Traffic cameras showed that Wade had driven to the jogging track alone, so unless he met someone there, he had been running alone too. There was no evidence found at the scene - no fingerprints or DNA, not even a footprint - so even if they did have a suspect, there would be no way to link them to the scene of the crime. The only identifying piece of information they had was that the killer was right-handed, judging by the angle of the slit in Wade’s throat.

Whoever had done this had covered their tracks amazingly well.

That in itself at least told Chloe that the murder had definitely been planned. But no matter how much she dug into Wade’s life, she couldn’t find a motive for murdering him other than revenge for helping put Chris Lough behind bars. And she was pretty damn sure Chris had had nothing to do with it. The fear in his eyes as Lucifer had held him against the wall was proof enough that he wasn’t lying to them.

Chloe scrubbed her eyes as she tried to think of something they had missed, but she was coming up with nothing. Friday nights were always the worst when she had an unsolved case and this one was no exception. And with Trixie staying at Dan’s the weekend, she didn’t even have anything to properly take her mind off of it.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true, was it?

Chloe reached for the phone that was on the coffee table in front of her and dialled the familiar number of the Devil. It was only a couple of rings before he answered.

‘Detective! Please tell me this phone call is to tell me that you have changed your mind about not joining me at Lux tonight.’

Chloe chuckled and shook her head, mood instantly brightened.

‘Sorry, babe, but I doubt I would be much fun.’

‘Nonsense,’ said Lucifer. ‘There’s a fun Chloe in there somewhere, buried underneath all those sensible brown shoes and blazers; Miss Lopez told me about your Hen’s night.’

Chloe cringed. That was not a memory she particularly wanted to revisit… but Lucifer was right, she had had fun that night in the party bus - before things had gotten too heavy that is.

‘But if you insist on staying home, so be it,’ continued Lucifer. ‘So, why are you calling? Did you miss my voice already?’

At his teasing, her brightened mood returned. ‘A little bit,’ she admitted. She knew his ego would be insufferable for the rest of the phone call now, but she wasn’t going to lie.

‘Well, it is a nice voice,’ he purred, making Chloe want to both roll her eyes and shiver in anticipation of the promises hidden behind said voice. ‘It’s been known to be capable of creating very… _pleasurable_ reactions.’

This time Chloe did shiver, but she held herself from anything else. She did not call Lucifer to have phone sex with him. They hadn’t even had real sex yet.

‘I bet,’ she said, trying to sound casual but coming off as awkward. She cringed again.

_Good going, Decker. Real smooth._

‘Anyway,’ she hurried on, ‘I just called to get out of my head, I guess. I hate hitting dead-ends on cases.’

‘I know you do,’ said Lucifer, the seductive purr replaced with sincere empathy. ‘But I’m sure something will turn up. You are far too good a detective to let this murderous miscreant slip through the cracks; no matter how thorough they’ve been, we’ll catch them.’

Chloe wished they were talking in-person, then she could kiss him. He always seemed to know exactly what to say to make her feel better. And he always told the truth, so she knew that he meant what he said; he one hundred percent believed that they would catch this guy.

‘Thank you, Lucifer,’ she said, making sure to put as much gratitude as she could in those two small words. ‘I really needed that.’

Before either of them could say more, something made a loud bang outside her apartment, like something getting knocked over, making Chloe startle.

‘What was that?’ asked Lucifer.

Chloe looked uneasily towards her front door; the noise had sounded awfully close.

‘I’m not sure. Something outside. I’m just going to check.’

Grabbing her gun, just to be safe, she cautiously unlocked her door and peered outside. Nothing appeared to be out of the usual. Taking a quick sweep of the area, she saw the cause of the ruckus: a knocked over trashcan.

Feeling silly, Chloe loosened her grip on her weapon. ‘Just a knocked over trashcan,’ she told Lucifer. ‘Probably a raccoon or a cat or something.’

‘Ghastly creatures,’ said Lucifer as Chloe bent down to quickly clean up what had spilled out of the can - which was thankfully not much and nothing too icky – and put the lid back on.

‘Raccoons or cats?’ asked Chloe.

‘Both.’

Chloe shook her head at him and chuckled. ‘There’s nothing wrong with cats. In fact, Trixie has been asking me for one.’

‘Well I’d advise not give in to her unless you like scratched furniture and hair all over your clothing. Not to mention the smell.’

Chloe rolled her eyes as she headed back inside, but she paused before shutting the door behind her, taking one more uneasy look outside. She had a weird feeling, almost like she was being watched.

‘And they always act so snobby,’ continued Lucifer, bringing Chloe back to the conversation. She shook her head, once again feeling silly, and closed the door. ‘It’s like you humans enslave yourselves to them.’

‘Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard it all before,’ teased Chloe. ‘My landlord doesn’t allow pets, anyway, so don’t worry, your suits are safe.’

Lucifer let out an audible sigh of relief, making Chloe roll her eyes again, though the fond smile never left her face. ‘Dodged a bullet there, then,’ he said.

There was a minute of comfortable silence before Chloe spoke up. ‘Well I had better let you go,’ she said, somewhat regretfully. ‘Aren’t you playing a set tonight? You don’t want to keep your fans waiting; they missed you while you were gone.’

That was an understatement. Lucifer’s phone had barely stopped ringing the past few weeks with lady and gentlemen callers who were very eager to show him just how pleased they were that he had returned.

They always sounded so disappointed when he turned them down.

‘They can wait,’ said Lucifer, and Chloe felt her heart swell a little at the thought of him putting off something he enjoyed so much just to stay on the phone with her.

But that wasn’t fair on him, and she wasn’t going to let him sacrifice more than he already had for her.

‘You should go anyway. I know you’ve missed Lux. So, go. Have fun.’

The sincerity of her words must have gotten through to him because he finally agreed, and after only a couple more times of insisting that she was sure, he hung up the phone.

Chloe laughed a little to herself as she put the phone back down on the table. But then that uneasy feeling returned and she found herself subconsciously hugging herself. Or perhaps this uneasiness was due to completely different reasons? She had originally wanted a quiet night in alone, but alone no longer sounded very appealing.

Forcing herself to relax, she lowered her arms and told herself that she was being stupid. She had survived plenty of nights by herself in this apartment, tonight was nothing new.

But, then again, maybe it was. Because now she had a boyfriend who very much wanted to spend time with her.

What the hell was she doing staying at home?

Making her mind up, she rushed upstairs and started to riffle through her wardrobe for something Lux appropriate. She wasn’t much for clubbing, and she far preferred comfort over style, but surely she had something that wasn’t too boring

Her eyes caught a flash of silver, and Chloe remembered that she did indeed have something appropriate for Lux. Because she had bought it with the nightclub specifically in mind. It had been one of her bad days, about a month after Lucifer had left, and Ella had taken her shopping to try and cheer her up. Chloe had seen the dress and had instantly thought that it would be something she could see herself wearing to Lux and had bought it as a token of hope and faith that she would get the chance to do just that. It was silvery and shiny, but not sparkly, the hemline was modest but not too much so, ending just below mid-thigh, and the neckline showed just the right amount of cleavage that Chloe was comfortable with showing.

In short, it was perfect. A dress that she would feel comfortable wearing but wouldn’t make her feel underdressed next to Lucifer. That man was always so impeccably dressed, and Chloe was not above admitting that the reason she had put off going to Lux with him until now was because she didn’t want to deal with the judgemental eyes of club-goers who thought she wasn’t good enough for him.

After slipping on the dress, Chloe rummaged around the bottom of her wardrobe until she found the shoes she had bought to go with it – silver heels that were a little painful to walk in but she was willing to put up with it for one night. She completed her look with a pair of small silver teardrop earrings and her usual bullet necklace (that she had already been wearing) and then applied some light make-up and did what she could with her hair. The whole process took less than half an hour and by the end of it, Chloe was fairly happy with the result.

Nodding at the mirror, she left her bedroom before she could change her mind and grabbed her car keys, phone, and purse from the coffee table. She contemplated texting Lucifer to let him know she was heading over but decided against it. She very rarely got the chance to surprise him, and she really did want to see the look on his face when he first saw her in the dress.

After double checking her apartment door was locked (an old habit her father taught her), she made her way to her car, but stopped as a sudden feeling of unease overwhelmed her – like she was being watched again. A quick glance of her surroundings revealed that there was not a soul in sight, and nothing seemed out of place, so Chloe forced herself to relax.

She swept her eyes over the immediate area one more time before continuing on to her car. Going to Lux was definitely the right move, she decided. She didn’t want to be alone if she was going to be this jumpy all night.

\----

When Chloe got to Lux, bypassing the line and secretly revelling in the jealous glances that it caused, Lucifer was in the middle of a song. Chloe didn’t recognise it, but it sounded beautiful.

Didn’t they all when they sung in his voice?

Chloe waited in the crowd until Lucifer had finished, happy just to watch him for a while, and when he did, she applauded and cheered with the rest of the crowd. Lucifer gave a theatrical bow and then signalled for the DJ to turn the club music back on, and Chloe finally made a move to approach him. He was already at the bar by the time she had managed to weave through the masses, so Chloe had to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention.

Seeing him turn around and then go jaw slacked when he saw her felt even more satisfying than Chloe had thought it would.

Once he had recovered, Lucifer’s face split into a pleased grin. ‘Why, don’t you look just ravishing. Bravo, Detective.’

Chloe was thankful for the club’s lighting that would hide her blush. ‘I take it you like the dress,’ she laughed.

Lucifer’s gaze roamed over her hungrily. ‘I do. More specifically, I like _you_ in that dress.’

And she was blushing again, but she was also immensely pleased with herself. ‘So, do I look the part, then?’

Lucifer’s smile faltered a little and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. ‘Part?’

‘Yeah, you know. Eccentric club-owner’s girlfriend. I don’t want to embarrass you or ruin your reputation or anything.’

Lucifer’s smile fell properly then, and Chloe had just enough time to worry if she had said something wrong before he leaned down and kissed her. The kiss was a lot more tender than Chloe had anticipated, and she found herself melting into it.

‘You could never embarrass me, darling,’ said Lucifer after he had pulled away, the words only just loud enough for her to hear over the music.

Chloe gave him a grateful smile. ‘Even so, Lux is a big part of your life, and I want to fit in. Besides, you may change your tune when you see my dancing.’

Lucifer gave a proper laugh at that and wrapped an arm around her to direct her to the bar stool he had just vacated. ‘I will hold off on my judgement until the end of the night then,’ he teased. ‘But first, a drink, I think. To celebrate the first time I get to properly show you off.’

Chloe giggled embarrassingly and accepted the drink that the bartender had already made her. One of Lux’s many good qualities was its skilled and seemingly psychic staff.

She held out her glass to tap it against Lucifer’s. ‘Cheers.’

The pair chatted comfortably as they finished their drinks, purposely avoiding the topic of their current case. Tonight was for having fun and letting loose, and hopefully come Monday Chloe would be refreshed enough to think of a new angle from which to approach the problem.

In truth, she knew she wouldn’t be able to avoid thinking about the case for the whole weekend, but she knew she should at least try to give her mind a rest from it, even if she was trying in vain. The case had already interfered with her social life once this week, she wasn’t going to let it happen a second time. A healthy work/life balance was important, apparently.

So, with that in mind, she let Lucifer drag her out onto the dance floor. She was a bit awkward at first, but Lucifer soon took the lead and Chloe found herself following his movements with ease. Lucifer spun her around and pulled her close, her back to his chest, and Chloe let out a joyous giggle as they started to move to the music – some upbeat song that Chloe had never heard before.

The song changed but the rhythm remained, so Lucifer did not let go, which was just fine with Chloe. She was rather enjoying herself; despite being trapped in Lucifer’s arms, she’d never felt so free. She usually felt stupid when she did stuff like this, worried everyone was judging her, but Lucifer’s presence helped sooth that worry.

‘You look radiant, Detective,’ Lucifer’s hot breath ghosted over her ear.

Of course, it helped when he said things like _that_.

In response, Chloe turned her head so she could press her lips against his in a kiss that started off chaste but soon turned needy. When she finally broke away, panting heavily, Lucifer just directed his attentions elsewhere, namely her neck and what he could reach of her jawline. Chloe shivered pleasantly, and Lucifer groaned and pulled her tighter against him, letting her know just how much the situation was affecting him.

‘Detective,’ he purred against her ear with that seductive voice of his. ‘I know we’re taking things slow, but, uh-’ He cut himself off with a groan as Chloe grinded back against him with purpose. She smirked, proud of herself. ‘Do you think we could continue this dance up at the penthouse?’ he asked once he had composed himself. ‘Preferably with a lot less clothing involved.’

Chloe bit her lip; she had been secretly anxious about finally taking that step. The idea of sex with Lucifer Morningstar, while being the subject of many a wet dream, was still rather intimidating. He had been with so many people and done so many things… how could boring Chloe Jane Decker compare?

But right now, she didn’t feel like "boring Chloe Jane Decker". And having sex with Lucifer Morningstar sounded like a great idea.

‘Yes,’ she breathed.

Most people wouldn’t have been able to hear her over the music, but Lucifer wasn’t most people and as soon as the word had left her mouth, he spun her around so that he could kiss her hungrily. Chloe wasn’t usually one for PDA, but she had seen people do much worse on this dance floor, so she didn’t let it bother her. But when Lucifer’s lips returned to her neck and his hands started wandering under clothing, she had to remind him of the penthouse part of the plan.

Lucifer seemed to force himself away with a groan and then linked his hands with hers. He wasted no more time in leading her to the elevator and by the time the doors closed behind them, they were attacking each other’s mouths again.

When the doors opened again, Chloe and Lucifer almost fell into the penthouse, but Lucifer’s quick reflexes saved them from tumbling to the hard floor. In one fluid movement, he picked Chloe up and placed her on the piano, causing a caterwaul of sounds to come from the keys. Neither of them cared, both too focused on getting Lucifer out of his jacket and shirt.

They just about had the garments off when a sultry voice called out Lucifer’s name from the bedroom.

Both froze and looked towards the bedroom where the voice had come from. The voice called out again, flirtatious and teasing, and Chloe had no doubt in her mind that whoever the woman was, she was waiting on Lucifer’s bed.

Chloe felt like a bucket of ice had been poured over her.

Lucifer looked awkwardly between Chloe and his bedroom a couple of times before he reluctantly untangled himself from her legs and buttoned up his shirt. ‘Britney, what are you doing here?’ he asked irritably, raising his voice so it would be heard from the bedroom.

 _Of course it was a Britney_ , Chloe thought.

‘Waiting for you,’ Britney answered, still from inside the bedroom. She hadn’t seemed to have registered the annoyance in Lucifer’s voice.

Once his shirt was buttoned up and he was decently covered, he stormed up the stairs to his bedroom; Chloe hopped down from the piano and slowly followed, stopping at the foot of the stairs.

Britney, of course, was stunning and Chloe felt all her insecurities rushing back, hitting her like a tidal wave. She knew that Britney had not been invited here or was even welcome – she didn’t doubt that Lucifer would keep his promise to be faithful to her – but that didn’t stop Chloe from doubting herself. How could she possibly compare next to the confident and sexy woman who was laying provocatively in the middle of Lucifer’s bed wearing lingerie that probably cost more than what Chloe earned in a fortnight?

Lucifer was thankfully oblivious to Chloe’s inner downward spiral, and was already riffling through his wardrobe, grabbing a suit jacket and chucking it in Britney’s direction. ‘I’m afraid you have waited in vain,’ he told her. ‘I’m in a relationship now – a strictly monogamous one this time.’

Britney ignored the jacket and rolled her eyes. ‘With that boring detective, I know. I just thought you might like some fun.’ The smile fell from her lips and her eyes widened as she finally noticed Chloe. ‘Oh.’

‘I think you should leave now,’ said Lucifer, voice hard.

Britney nodded, looking guilty, and grabbed the jacket Lucifer had thrown her. She muttered an awkward apology to Chloe as she passed her on her way to the elevator.

An awkward silence fell over the penthouse at her departure and Chloe wrapped her arms around herself to fight the chill that had nothing to do with the room’s temperature.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Lucifer, so softly she almost didn’t hear him. He was still standing at the doorway to his wardrobe, looking guilty.

‘It’s not your fault,’ she told him, truthfully, as she made her way up the stairs towards him. He didn’t ask all these people to throw themselves at him, and she wasn’t going to hold him accountable when they did.

‘I had no idea she was here.’

Chloe gave him a small smile that she hoped was comforting. ‘I know you didn’t. And before you say it, I know that you wouldn’t have done anything with her even if I wasn’t here.’

‘I would never do that to you,’ he said, his voice as serious as she had ever heard it.

Chloe smiled gratefully, if a little sadly, at him. ‘I know you wouldn’t. I trust you.’

Lucifer looked reassured at her words, but the awkwardness did not leave the room. ‘I should go too,’ said Chloe after it had gotten too much to bear. She made to leave but she had barely turned before Lucifer was grabbing her arm gently.

‘Stay. Please. Not for sex,’ he added hurriedly. ‘Just… stay.’

Chloe gave him a sympathetic look and took his hand in hers, grasping it comfortingly. ‘I’m sorry. I know saying “it’s not you, it’s me” is such a line, but it’s true. I just…’ She trailed off, unsure of how to voice her inability to stay without having to admit the reasons why. She knew she had to talk to him about it someday, but the mood had already been broken enough tonight.

Besides, he still had so much he was dealing with himself, it wouldn’t be fair to throw all of her own issues on top of all that.

So instead of continuing, she reached up on her tiptoes and gave him a light kiss on the lips, hoping it would be enough to convince him that she really didn’t blame him for any of this. ‘Another time,’ she promised.

Lucifer eventually gave a reluctant nod but still watched with sad eyes as Chloe left. She hoped that he would go back down to Lux eventually; it was still early and the whole point of tonight had been for him to enjoy the club that he had missed so much during his time away, but Chloe doubted he would. Yet another way she didn’t match up to those who came before her, she supposed. She very much doubted that Eve would have been bothered by the situation. She would have jumped straight into Lucifer’s bed the moment Britney had left it. Probably even before that, actually.

But Chloe wasn’t like that, and she didn’t think she would ever be.

She just hoped that Lucifer wouldn’t resent her for it.


	4. Chapter 4

Monday came along quicker than Chloe would have liked, and with it came another body. On the plus side, Lucifer didn’t seem to be mad at her for her quick departure on Friday, and after the initial awkward greeting, they soon fell back into their usual routine – i.e. Lucifer complaining about Chloe’s “Nana driving”, and Chloe rolling her eyes so hard she worried they might get stuck that way.

The body was found in a small park in Pasadena, sitting propped up against a tree. As Chloe approached, she immediately noticed that the large quantity of dried blood that had stained the dead woman’s clothes.

Another messy one, it seemed. 

‘Julia Ambers,’ Ella told them once they had reached the body. She held out a wallet to Chloe, who put on her gloves and took it. ‘Aged 53. Cause of death, the big cut in her throat.’

Just like Wade Timberton.

Chloe looked over the ID in Julia’s wallet, noting that she was a local resident, only living a few streets away from the park. ‘Was she killed here?’ she asked Ella.

‘Yep. From what I can tell, she was sat right how she is, and the killer slashed her throat from the front.’ She made a sideways slashing motion in front of her, accompanying it with a swooshing noise, before sobering once more. The real bad news, however, is the cut in her forehead.

Placing the wallet in an evidence bag, Chloe took a proper look at the body and saw the cut the Ella was referring to.

It was in the shape of a "2".

‘Far be it from me to jump to conclusions,’ said Lucifer, and Chloe would normally point out the hypocrisy of the statement, but she had a feeling that she was thinking the exact same thing he was, ‘but I am sensing a lot of similarities between this woman and our unlucky jogger, Mr Timberton.’

Chloe nodded. ‘Both have slit throats, both were killed in public places and left there to be found, and both have marks on the forehead.’

‘Post-mortem marks,’ added Ella. ‘And if you guys are right and it is the same guy – or gal – then I think the cut on Timberton’s forehead was probably a "1".’

Chloe nodded. ‘I think you’re right, which means either the killer has a list of specific targets… or we have serial killer on our hands.’

\----

A search of Julia’s home revealed nothing out of the ordinary apart from a few dirty dishes in the sink amongst an otherwise spotless apartment, so Chloe and Lucifer headed back to the precinct to figure out who the next of kin was. Lucky for them, by the time they got there, Dan already had all the answers for them.

‘She has two daughters, but one of them moved to New York 10 years ago, so it would probably be better to talk to the one still in LA first.’

‘No husband or partner?’ asked Chloe taking the file from him.

‘Not anymore,’ said Dan. ‘Her husband was Nick Danes.’

Chloe’s head shot up at that. ‘Nick Danes? Really?’

Dan nodded.

‘Who’s Nick Danes?’ asked Lucifer.

‘A real piece of work,’ answered Chloe, looking over the file. ‘He murdered his sister. The crime scene was… well let’s just say that I won’t ever forget it.’

Chloe’s stomach turned at the memory of how they had found Nancy Danes… or more accurately, what was left of her.

‘So, you worked the case?’ asked Lucifer.

Chloe nodded. ‘Yeah. It wasn’t long before Palmetto. I didn’t get to interview Julia though, she was away, probably visiting her daughter in New York now that I think about it.’

‘So that’s two people now who have been connected to your prior cases and have wound up dead with numbers carved into their heads.’

Chloe, Lucifer, and Dan shared a worried look. ‘It might be a coincidence,’ said Dan, but he didn’t sound very convinced of his own words.

‘Well, we’ll look into it,’ said Chloe, clearing her throat to clear the lump that had formed in it. She didn’t like the thought of being the connection between two murders. ‘But first, we have to notify Julia’s daughter and question friends and coworkers to see if we can find any other connections, or, with any luck, any actual evidence.’ She turned to Dan. ‘Can you let me know as soon as we have the tox report on Julia’s body? I want to know if there was any rohypnol in her system like there was in Wade’s.’

Dan nodded and headed towards Ella’s lab, leaving Chloe and Lucifer standing in awkward silence.

‘I’m sure we’ll find another connection, Detective,’ said Lucifer with false confidence, Chloe had learned how to tell the difference over the years. ‘Remember Jana and Raj? We thought their deaths were connected to me at first, but they weren’t.’

How could she forget? Hearing a parade of beautiful people list all the different things Lucifer had done for them - _to_ them - had proven to Chloe how out of her depth she was with Lucifer. But it had also shown her how lonely Lucifer’s life had been. 92 lovers, and not one had seemed to have cared about his desires. Chloe took comfort in the fact that at least that was something she would surpass them in; she would definitely care.

‘Yes, but they were both air stewards,’ said Chloe, banishing those thoughts that were best not dwelt on. ‘Wade was a manager of a gym, and Julia was a dentist.’

‘She looked rather good for her age,’ countered Lucifer, ‘and Wade had excellent teeth, maybe they visited each other’s establishments?’

Chloe made a non-committal noise, thinking of how said establishments were on different sides of the city. ‘Maybe.’ She looked up at him, ready to tell him that they should really start to get a move on, but the dejected look in his eyes made her pause. She suddenly realised that she hadn’t been the only one he had been trying to convince.

She reached out and took his hand in hers, giving it a comforting squeeze. ‘Whatever this guy’s motivation is, we’ll get him,’ she told him with confidence. ‘LA’s best crime-fighting duo, remember?’

Lucifer’s eyes softened and he gave her that warm smile that always made Chloe melt a little inside. His hand squeezed hers in return. ‘Of course, Detective,’ he said before reluctantly letting go of her hand and gesturing towards the elevator.

‘Let’s go catch ourselves a bad guy.’

\----

Unfortunately, catching this particular bad guy was proving to be quite difficult. Julia's daughter, Lucy, had been quite close to her mother and had been able to provide them with many details about her life. Unfortunately those details had not led to any suspects. A trip to Julia’s place of work had proved the same result, and Julia’s ex-husband had died in prison three years ago, so there didn’t seem to be any motive there. Also, neither Julia nor Wade’s financials showed any indications that they had visited each other’s establishments; there was no evidence of any connection between the two victims.

No connection other than Chloe.

Chloe tried to look on the positive side. At least it _was_ a connection; a lead to investigate.

It wasn’t a very nice lead though, and she could already see Lucifer getting that over-protective glint in his eye. ‘We should gather a list of people who I have helped put away that have recently gotten out of jail,’ she told him as she sat at her desk that afternoon; interviewing Julia’s friends and family had taken almost the entire day. She pulled her hair free and rubbed her temples, willing her headache away.

It was only a few seconds before Lucifer’s fingers replaced hers as he stood behind her and began a highly skilled massage. Chloe almost groaned in relief; she should have known he would be good at this. But they were in public, at work no less, and a mumbled but heartfelt “thank you” would have to do.

‘We can do the list tomorrow,’ insisted Lucifer, still rubbing her temples. Chloe’s headache had receded, but still she didn’t tell him to stop. For lack of a better word, it felt _heavenly_.

Chloe glanced at the time on her computer; it was almost time to go pick up Trixie from karate lessons. ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ she sighed.

Lucifer paused. ‘Sorry, I don’t think I quite caught that. You might have to say it again.’

Chloe let out small huff of laughter and batted at his hand playfully. ‘You heard exactly what I said.’

Lucifer chuckled and lowered his hands and rested them on the back of hr chair instead. ‘Thank you,’ said Chloe, looking over her shoulder at him.

Someone clearing their throat nearly made her jump out of her skin and she turned back around to see Dan, who had seemingly materialised out of nowhere. He was clearly annoyed at the display of affection, or rather who that affection was shared with, and Chloe was reminded why she hadn’t told him of her relationship with Lucifer yet. She didn’t want to deal with the argument that it would cause.

Chloe coughed awkwardly and Lucifer took that as the signal to casually return to his own chair at the desk. Dan’s glare followed him the whole way. ‘Ella got the tox results on Julia’s body,’ he told Chloe once Lucifer was fully seated. ‘She had royhpnol in her system.’

Chloe nodded thoughtfully. ‘Any idea how it got there?’

‘Ingested. Probably with her food, or with a drink that was consumed with food.’

Chloe suddenly remembered the dirty dishes in Julia’s sink that had struck her as odd. ‘There were dirty dishes in her sink at her apartment,’ she told Dan. ‘I have to go pick up Trixie, so can you go check it out and get Ella to test them? It’s a long shot, but it’s really the only thing I can think of.’

‘You think that Julia was drugged at her home and then taken to the park when she was unconscious?’ asked Lucifer.

Chloe shrugged. ‘The park was the closest public space to her home, and if the killer is purposely leaving his victims where they can be easily found, it would make the most sense.’ She turned to Dan. ‘See if you can find any signs of a break in at Julia’s apartment. And get someone to do the same for Wade’s. Perhaps that’s how the killer got the rohypnol into his water bottle?’

Dan nodded and left to rustle up some help for his task. Chloe gathered her things to go pick up Trixie, feeling much better for having at least some sort of theory, but Lucifer’s awkward shuffling beside her gave her pause. ‘Everything okay?’ she asked him.

‘I was wondering if perhaps I could accompany you to pick up the Spawn?’ he asked, uncharacteristically shy.

Chloe quirked an eyebrow. ‘You do realise that there will be other children at the karate class? And that I have to go inside the hall to get Trixie, where there will be no avoiding them?’

Lucifer visibly grimaced but hid it quickly. ‘I’m sure I will survive,’ he said, back to his usual dismissive tone that seemed to appear whenever he spoke of “sticky taxing burdens”.

Chloe knew that the main reason he wanted to accompany her was because he was scared that this case, which was definitely heading into serial killer territory, was about her, and she knew that she should reassure him that it wasn’t necessary, but truth be told she was a little scared herself. Plus, she really wanted to see him navigate a dozen sweaty twelve-year-olds who were still full of adrenaline from their lesson and had been given free reign of the hall until their parents arrived.

‘Well, if you’re sure,’ she said, giving him one last chance to back out.

But it was a chance he didn’t take, instead he nodded and followed her towards the elevator. ‘We’ll have to take my car, though,’ said Chloe as the doors slid shut behind them.

Lucifer made a small sound of displeasure but didn’t argue, knowing that they couldn’t really take the corvette considering there wasn’t enough room for three. ‘I’ll text Maze,’ he said. ‘I’m sure for a generous fee, she wouldn’t mind picking it up and taking it to Lux for me. She knows where my spare keys are.’ He paused, frowning. ‘Though, no doubt she will insist on taking it for a joyride.’

‘Well, in that case, maybe you should stay for dinner, then,’ said Chloe, trying to be casual about the invitation; though they had been dating for a few weeks now, him having dinner with her and Trixie was still not a common occurrence. ‘Maze can bring your car back to the apartment when she’s had her fun.’

Lucifer’s lips twitched up into a smile. ‘You underestimate the amount of fun that car can be. Definitely more than one night’s worth.’

Chloe shook her head at him, fighting her own smile. ‘You know what I mean.’

Lucifer’s smile transformed into something warmer. ‘I do,’ he admitted, ‘and I would like nothing more than to stay for dinner.’

Chloe had to look away before she gave into temptation and kissed him, which was just as well, as not three seconds later, the elevator doors opened to a group of unis who would have had a front row seat had she decided to act on her desire to make out with her boyfriend in the precinct elevator. So, instead, Chloe did the sensible thing and patiently waited until both her and Lucifer were in her cruiser… and then launched at him the second the car doors were closed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a heads up, the "phone sex" tag becomes relevant in the later part of this chapter, so it is kinda smutty.

The next day, Chloe and Lucifer went through all the people Chloe had put away who had gotten out of jail in the last six months. There wasn’t many – being a homicide detective meant that the perps tended to have lengthy sentences – but there were some from her uniform days. Enough to take them the better part of the day to visit and interview anyway. By the end of it, Chloe was both mentally and physically exhausted. It was needless to say that her presence was not a welcome sight for most of the people they had interviewed, and quite a few had made that abundantly clear. Chloe had lost count of how many times she had heard the words “bitch” and “pig” in the last few hours.

But Chloe was a big girl and she could put up with a few insults. What really irked her however was that the whole thing had been pretty pointless. While they hadn’t ended up definitively ruling anybody out yet (a quick check of financials would clarify if those with alibis were hiring a hitman to do their dirty work), they also hadn’t found any actual evidence that any of them were involved, or even knew of the murders.

At least Dan had been able to determine that Julia had been drugged at her home, there were faint traces of rohypnol on the glass that was left in her sink, but he hadn’t been able to find any other evidence at the scene – no sign of a break in, no fingerprints, no DNA. Nothing. Wade’s house had provided them with the same lack of results, so either this person was being invited into their victim’s homes, or they were an expert at picking locks and disabling security systems (not that Julia’s system had been of the best quality, and Wade hadn't even had one).

Chloe let out a long sigh an eyed Lucifer as he paced angrily in front of her desk. He was still bristling from their interviews with Chloe’s ex-perps; she had had to physically hold him back a few times throughout the day when insults towards her had gotten more venomous and more personal. Chloe was grateful that he was so willing to defend her honour, but his fuse had been especially short since returning from Hell, and she didn’t want him to bring the wrath of Devil down on anyone who didn’t deserve it, no matter how many times they called her a "washed up whore".

‘Lucifer, will you please just sit down,’ she said, not unkindly. ‘It was just a few nasty words; I’ve dealt with a lot worse.’

‘I should go back and tear him limb from bloody limb,’ he snarled, but sat down nonetheless. ‘How dare he speak to you that way.’

Ah yes, their last interviewee had been particularly spiteful, throwing insults at as many aspects of Chloe life as he could think of, up to and including her B-grade acting career, her ability to satisfy a man, and even taking a dig at her parenting skills.

Lucifer had not been impressed.

‘It’s fine,’ she said, trying to reiterate the point that she didn’t care what they thought, even if some of their insults did hit a little too close to home. ‘He was just pissed off because he has only been out of jail for two weeks and already has cops back at his door. It’s understandable.’

Lucifer scoffed. ‘Nothing about what he said to you was “understandable”.’

‘Well it’s unlikely we’ll have to deal with him again, so just let it go. Please,’ she added when Lucifer offered no reply other than glaring into the middle-distance.

‘Fine,’ he sighed. ‘I promise I'll leave him alone.’ Chloe gave him a pointed look and he sighed again. ‘And I won't send Maze after him.’

Chloe smiled softly. ‘Thank you. I appreciate you wanting to defend me, but you’ve already done more than enough. Doing those interviews alone would have been h-’ she cut herself off at the last second. ‘Well, it would have been a lot harder to deal with, so thank you.’

Lucifer’s grip on the chair tightened a bit at the almost-mention of his former kingdom, but other than that, he didn’t react to the slip up. ‘No thanks necessary,’ he said, the anger finally fading from his voice. ‘Though, might I suggest we send Daniel to do any follow up interviews. Or better yet, Maze.’

‘No setting Maze on anyone,’ Chloe reminded him, causing him to finally sigh in defeat and slump back into his chair. ‘Besides, she’s not even on the Force. Sending Dan is a good idea, though. The Lieutenant’s being eyeing this case ever since we found out that the victims are connected to my former cases. I think she wants to take me off it, so seeing Dan taking more of the work might hold her off for a little bit.’

As if summoned by thought alone, Lieutenant Diaz suddenly appeared in front of Chloe’s desk, though thankfully too late to hear what Chloe had just said.

‘Decker. Mr Morningstar,’ she greeted, nodding at them both. ‘How are we coming along with our two slasher cases?’

Chloe wanted to cringe, but she was determined to try a put a positive spin on things. ‘We are investigating new leads,’ she told her. ‘It looks like Julia definitely ingested the rohypnol at home, so we are going back over any likely visitors. We are also going to visit the neighbours again, see if any of them noticed anyone out of the ordinary frequenting the neighbourhood in case the killer is stalking their victims. We are doing the same for Wade. The two seem to have different social circles, but perhaps there may be an overlap somewhere.’

In hindsight, that last line may have been a mistake, as Diaz latched onto it at once. ‘So, you still haven’t found any connection between the victims other than your previous cases?’ she asked.

This time Chloe did cringe. ‘No Ma’am.’

Diaz let out a weary sigh and rested her hands on Chloe’s desk. ‘Look, Decker, you’re one of my best detectives and I want nothing more than to have the partnership with the precinct’s highest closing rate on this case… but not at the risk of their personal safety. Perhaps you should hand this one off to someone else?’

It had been exactly what Chloe had been expecting, but it was still hard to hear.

But Chloe was not giving up without a fight.

‘With all due respect, Lieutenant,’ she said, carefully. ‘If this killer is targeting victims because of me, then I am the one with the most insight as to who it may be.’

Lieutenant Diaz did not look convinced. But Chloe had the Devil on her side.

‘Stephanie,’ purred Lucifer, rising from his chair so that he was now standing just a little too much into the Lieutenant’s personal space, not that Diaz seemed to mind. She straightened and turned to face him, drawn to him like so many others, despite the diamond ring on her finger.

‘I’m sure we can come to some arrangement to keep the Detective and I on the case,’ he continued. ‘Tell me, what do you desire, hmm?’

Diaz opened and closed her mouth a few times, a “complicated one” no doubt, but eventually she succumbed to the question. With a defeated sigh, she slumped her shoulders and leaned back against Chloe’s desk. ‘A vacation,’ she said. ‘A long one. But after the whole thing with Pierce and Hererra before him, everyone is still under scrutiny and time off is a pipe-dream for the next six months at least.’

Lucifer stood back and smiled brightly. ‘Well, that’s easy enough to fix,’ he said. ‘The commissioner owes me a favour, I’m sure I can swing some downtime for you.’

The knowledge that the police commissioner owed Lucifer a favour was not the shock it should have been; after all these years, Chloe had learnt not to underestimate the expanse of Lucifer’s network. She just hoped that the favour had been of the legal variety.

Diaz’s eyes widened, a spark of hope creeping into her expression before she cleared her throat and stood up straight again, regaining the composure more expected of the lieutenant she was. ‘I suppose, we don’t know for sure if Decker is the only connection,’ she said, ‘and as I said, you two _do_ have the highest closure rate of the precinct...’

‘So, you’ll allow us to continue working the case?’ asked Lucifer, trying to seal the deal. Diaz nodded and his grin widened. ‘Marvellous.’

Diaz turned to Chloe. ‘Just keep me updated,’ she said and, after Chloe’s nod of agreement, she returned to her office, no doubt already planning her vacation.

Lucifer sat back down in his chair, looking very smug. ‘So…’ began Chloe. ‘The commissioner owes you a favour, huh?’

Lucifer beamed. ‘Oh yes, I introduced him to his wife.’

Chloe chuckled and shook her head at the cliché, but she couldn’t help but be relieved of the innocence of the favour. ‘Thank you,’ she said, her voice soft and full of gratitude. She knew that Lucifer didn’t like that these murders might be about her, and she knew that even the small possibility of her being targeted made him want her to be as far away from the case as possible… but he still supported her decision to keep working on it.

Not just supported, he _fought_ for her as well.

And Chloe couldn’t love him more for it.

\----

The rest of the afternoon ended up being pretty fruitless. None of Chloe’s ex-perps had any red flags in their financials and Chloe’s break-in theory still had very little evidence to back it up. Still, Chloe asked Dan to do follow up interviews for those with no alibi, though she didn’t expect much to come from it.

She went to bed that night telling herself that tomorrow was a new day and they would find something to break the case wide open. And she kept repeating that mantra inside her head until she finally fell asleep, wishing she had had the nerve to ask Lucifer (who had once again joined her and Trixie for dinner) to stay the night.

Unfortunately, Wednesday turned out to be much the same as Tuesday. No new leads, no new evidence. Not a single clue. Chloe had even gone through Wade and Julia’s phone records to see if they had ordered from the same takeaway place – yes, she was that desperate to find a connection between them.

All this meant that, come Wednesday night, Chloe was stressed and frustrated and feeling like a bit of a failure. And she didn’t even have anyone to distract her from it. Trixie was at a sleepover, Maze was out “hunting” (bounties or a one-night stands, Chloe wasn’t sure), and Lucifer was hosting a bachelor party at Lux. He had suggested skipping the party and staying with Chloe again, but she had insisted he go – she was fine, and he couldn’t keep shirking the responsibilities of his club just for her.

Now, alone and dejected, she was starting to regret telling him to go, but she remained firm in her decision. She was not going to be one of those people who demanded 100% of their spouse’s attention.

Still… one phone call wouldn’t hurt, would it? Just to hear his voice and hear how the party is going.

Chloe was just reaching for her phone when it started ringing, the chorus of _Eternal Flame_ breaking the silence of the apartment. She smiled, knowing from the personalised ringtone exactly who was calling her.

Think of the Devil…

‘Hey, how’s the party going?’ she asked upon answering, trying to sound as cheerful as possible, despite the weight of the case still bearing down on her. It didn’t help that she had the case files strewn across the kitchen counter next to where her phone was, the victims’ faces staring up at her, reminding her of how she was letting them down.

‘Fairly well as far as bachelor parties go,’ he said. ‘The Best Man has nearly bought out the bar, the groom is already contemplating infidelity, and the strippers are going to go home a lot richer than what they were this morning.’

Chloe chuckled but couldn’t quite bring herself to properly enjoy Lucifer’s amusing assessment. She pointedly turned around so she was facing away from the case files and went to sit on the lounge.

‘Sounds like a success, then,’ she said.

Lucifer made an affirmative hum and was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his tone was softer and a bit more serious. ‘And how are you?’ he asked. ‘I wasn’t sure if I should call, I don’t want to be a clingy Devil, but I just wanted to check in.’

‘You aren’t being clingy,’ Chloe assured him. ‘Or at least, not as clingy as I am. I was actually just about to call you when the phone rang.’

‘Miss me already?’ Lucifer’s voice was back to its usual teasing tone.

‘Maybe,’ Chloe drew out the word, trying to match his playfulness.

It wasn’t enough to fool Lucifer, though.

‘You’re fretting over the case again, aren’t you?’ he said. It wasn’t really a question.

Chloe sighed and sagged back against the cushions of the couch. ‘I just can’t help but thinking that there must be something else we can do. I don’t want to just wait for another body to drop, especially if…’ She trailed off, but Lucifer wasn’t going to let it go.

‘Especially if what?’

Chloe let out another long sigh. ‘Especially if I’m the reason these people are dying. I mean, I haven’t received any warnings or hate mail, and I haven’t noticed any stalkers… but we haven’t been able to find any other connections between the victims.’

‘Chloe, listen to me,’ said Lucifer, the use of her name highlighting how serious he was being. ‘No matter the killer’s motive’s, this is not your fault. You didn’t ask for this or want it. These people are innocent and the only person who is responsible for their deaths is the one who is killing them.’

Chloe wiped away the single tear that had formed in her eye. ‘Thank you, Lucifer,’ she said, heartfelt. ‘I needed that. I just feel like I’m not doing enough, that I’m letting the victims down.’

‘You are doing plenty,’ Lucifer soothed. ‘But, darling, you can’t keep burning the candle at both ends. I know you took those case files home with you again. You need to rest and recharge, or better yet, find someway to relieve the stress.’

Chloe could practically hear his eyebrows waggling. She rolled her eyes but was happy to be back to lighter topics of conversation.

‘Well, I would,’ she said, trying again for a playful tone and this time succeeding a little more. ‘But my boyfriend’s busy tonight, so…’

Lucifer chuckled. ‘Just say the word, darling, and I will be right there. I’m sure no one will miss me here.’

His voice sounded like temptation itself, and Chloe very nearly gave into it before she remembered that she had made a vow to herself not to draw too much attention away from his life… even if he would have been drawn away willingly.

‘You’d better not,’ she sighed, disappointed with her own decision. ‘Isn’t the groom one of your bartenders? He’d probably be upset if you bailed.’

‘He wouldn’t be upset for long once I reminded him that I paid for the bloody thing,’ said Lucifer but he didn’t argue further. He was silent for a few moments before he spoke up again, his voice back to that tempting silky tone. ‘You know, just because I’m not there, doesn’t mean I can’t still help relieve you of all that pent-up frustration.’

There was no mistaking what he meant by that, and although she still felt guilty that she was pulling him away from his club, Chloe wasn’t sure if she could resist temptation a second time.

‘Come on, darling,’ purred Lucifer. ‘I know you have at least one fun toy hidden away somewhere. Let me help you.’

Chloe was on the verge of saying yes when what he had said suddenly registered and she was momentarily distracted. ‘Wait, how do you know about my toy?’

‘Maze told me.’

Chloe opened her mouth to ask how Maze knew about it, as she only ever used it when she was home alone, but then decided that she would rather not know, instead adding it to the long list of things she would rather live in denial about when it came to her demonic roommate.

Lucifer used her silence as an opportunity to once again try and tempt her to sin. At this point, Chloe was expecting him to go the whole hog and use the phrase “I know you want to”.

And Chloe did want to. She really, really did.

So she stopped fighting temptation, stopped ignoring her own desires, and said the one word that Lucifer was waiting for.

‘Yes.’

She could almost see the pleased grin on his face.

‘Excellent. Now get yourself comfortable and tell me all about this toy of yours.’

Chloe was already blushing; it had been so long since she had last had phone sex - before Trixie had been born. Nevertheless, she made her way up the stairs to her bedroom and was just about to tell Lucifer about her very standard vibrator when a thought struck her and she stopped mid-step. ‘Wait, you’re not still in the middle of the party are you?’ she asked. ‘You’re alone?’

‘I’m in the penthouse,’ he said, much to Chloe’s relief. ‘As tempting as it is to have you on speaker so the whole party can hear you screaming my name, I think this is more of private moment, don’t you?’

Chloe let out a breath and continued her way up the stairs. ‘Yeah, yeah I do. Good. I uh, I’m just heading to my room, so I won’t be a sec.’

‘Take all the time you need,’ said Lucifer, back to his sultry tone. ‘But I do believe you were going to tell me about a certain item.’

Chloe rolled her eyes but smiled, happy that she hadn’t totally ruined the mood. ‘It’s pretty basic,’ she admitted. ‘Just a classic penetrative vibe. Three settings.’

Thankfully, Lucifer didn’t seem too bothered about the lack of flare of her sex toy collection. ‘Nothing wrong with the classics,’ he said, brightly. ‘And three settings is more than enough for us to have some fun. Now let me know when you are nice and comfy on that bed of yours, and please do tell me about every article of clothing you remove.’

Chloe chuckled at his eagerness. Having reached her bedroom, she turned on her touch lamp, which gave the room a nice warm glow; mixed with the moonlight that was peaking through her curtains, it created an almost sensual lighting.

She then went to her bedside drawer and, after a bit of fumbling, pulled out her trusty vibrator that had seen a lot of action since a certain somebody waltzed into her life. (In fact, it wasn’t even the same one she had owned when she had first met Lucifer - that one had given up the ghost mere months after they had become partners and she had had to replace it.)

Hoping that the toy was fully charged, she placed it on her bed and put her phone on speaker as she began to strip, dutifully commentating the process to Lucifer. She did consider telling a few white lies, but Lucifer knew her too well to believe that she would wear lacy underwear or silky lingerie for a quiet night alone, so she stuck to the truth, even if it wasn’t as sexy. Though she did try to put a more appealing spin on things by removing items slowly and emphasising the fact that she had not been wearing a bra.

All in all, it wasn’t the sexiest striptease she had ever done, making Chloe glad that Lucifer couldn’t actually see her, but it seemed to meet her audience’s approval, if the way Lucifer had breathed her name was anything to go by.

‘Okay, I’m on my bed,’ said Chloe in her best seductive purr. She resisted the urge to ask “now what?” and instead grabbed her vibe and turned it on the lowest setting, relieved to discover that it had at least some charge left in it.

‘Ah-ah-ah,’ tutted Lucifer, no doubt hearing the tell-tale buzzing noise. ‘No need to rush things, Detective. I want to take. My. Time.’ The last three words were spaced out, emphasising his point and making Chloe shiver. She could already tell that this would surpass all her past phone sex experiences – and probably quite a few of her actual sex experiences – and Lucifer had barely even begun.

‘So, lay back and let the Devil whisper naughty things in your ear,’ he continued, lowering his voice seductively.

‘Okay,’ she breathed, turning her vibe off and moving her phone to her pillow so she could hear properly. ‘I’m ready.’

‘Good,’ Lucifer praised. ‘First of all, tell me how you usually get started during all those nights when you are alone in your bed and thinking of me.’

‘How do you know I think of you?’ teased Chloe, unable to resist bringing a little of their usual banter to the situation.

‘Because who wouldn’t?’

Well, he had her there.

‘I, uh, usually tease myself a little first,’ said Chloe getting back on track and answering his original request. ‘You know, run the vibe up and down my thigh a few times, that sort of thing. I always assumed you would be a giant tease in the bedroom.’

‘So you do think of me,’ grinned Lucifer, sounding absolutely delighted. ‘And you are so right, I would definitely tease you first. When I think of you, I always imagine spending so much time on you that by the time I’m done, you are begging me to fuck you.’

Lucifer hardly ever swore, so hearing that word fall so easily from his lips had a surprisingly strong effect on Chloe. Couple that with the fact that he had just admitted to thinking about her too, and she was already pretty close to begging him to hurry this along.

But her pride told her that it was way too soon to resort to that, so instead she just let out a breathy moan to let Lucifer know how much his words were already affecting her.

‘Do you still have your vibrator in your hand?’ he asked, his seductive purr a little shaky. It seemed that Chloe was not the only one who was being affected.

Chloe gripped the toy tighter in anticipation. ‘Yes,’ she breathed.

‘I want you to tease yourself with it, like you normally would, but leave it off for now. Imagine it is my fingers that are slowly caressing your lovely thighs.’

Chloe closed her eyes and did as instructed, Lucifer's voice in her ear making her usual fantasy so much more vivid.

‘Do you like your breasts being played with?’ he asked after a minute or so of simply having her caress her thighs. Chloe nodded before realising that he couldn’t actually see her.

‘Yeah, I do,’ she said, fighting back a moan. She just hoped that he didn’t mention that damn movie, because that would really ruin things right now.

Thankfully, he didn’t.

‘Then skim your free hand up your stomach and give them some attention,’ he instructed, and Chloe complied. ‘Just do whatever feels natural.’

‘You mean whatever I _desire_?’ asked Chloe with a breathless huff of laughter.

‘Exactly,’ purred Lucifer, in the soft and silky voice that he usually used when using his “mojo”.

Chloe flicked her left nipple (which for some reason was always more sensitive than the right) and let out a moan. She desperately wanted to turn the vibrator on and move it just that little bit higher, but Lucifer had assumed control in this game they were playing, so she waited for him to give the go ahead.

She didn’t have to wait long.

‘Now turn that vibrator on but keep it at its lowest setting for now,’ he said. ‘Just a couple more caresses of your thigh and then move it higher.’ Chloe did so and then finally dragged the toy through her folds and up to her clit, letting out a little squeak of pleasure when she finally got the stimulation she needed.

Lucifer let out a low groan. ‘I bet you look so gorgeous right now,’ he said, sounding like he was starting to struggle. ‘I wish I could see you. Now, switch up to the second setting, but don’t enter yourself yet.’

Chloe groaned in frustration, but it turned into one of pleasure once she switched the setting up and brushed the tip of the toy through her folds again. She repeated the movement and couldn’t quite keep herself from moaning Lucifer’s name as she slowly stroked herself closer to the orgasm that was already starting to build.

Lucifer half-groaned-half-swore and then suddenly _he_ was the one begging. ‘Chloe, love, please, I need… Do you mind if I…?’ He seemed to be unable to finish his question, but Chloe got the gist of what he was asking. He was asking for permission to touch himself.

To be honest, she was a bit surprised that he wasn’t already; none of her previous partners had asked for permission, all assuming that she wouldn’t mind if they did (which, to be fair, they were right about). She should have known Lucifer would be different, and she found it quite endearing that he had asked. Even more endearing was the fact that she knew, if she told him no, he wouldn’t do it – he would respect her wishes even if it pained him to do so.

But Chloe wasn’t that cruel.

‘Yes!’ she all but shouted, both in response to his question and to the vibrations that were currently thrumming through her clit. ‘Please, Lucifer. Let me hear you.’

Lucifer let out a long and heady groan that made Chloe clench around nothing.

For the next few minutes, they each concentrated on themselves, the buzzing of the vibrator and their heavy pants and occasional moans the only sounds filling the air, but eventually Lucifer spoke again, his voice nowhere near as composed as it had been at the beginning of the phone call.

‘Are you close?’ he asked. ‘Please tell me you’re close.’

Chloe nodded frantically. ‘So close.’

Lucifer bit back another groan. ‘Do you want that toy inside you? Do you want to imagine it’s me slowly filling you up?’ It was a sign of how far gone he was that he didn’t try and quip about size comparisons.

‘Yes, Lucifer,’ Chloe breathed, already moving the toy to do just that. ‘Please, I need it.’

‘And there’s that begging,’ he chuckled through his own heady moan; he would be smug about it later, no doubt, but right now Chloe couldn’t care less.

He waited a few seconds, almost making Chloe beg again, but he was merciful and gave her the go ahead. Chloe almost sobbed in relief at the feeling of finally having something inside her, and before the toy was even all the way in, she was arching her hips and grinding against it.

‘Fuck, Lucifer. I’m so close,’ she whimpered.

‘Then let go,’ he said, sounding pretty close himself. ‘Come for me, Chloe.’

She wasn’t sure what did it, his words, the vibrations of the toy right where she finally needed them, or just Lucifer’s voice sounding just as wrecked as she was, but whichever it was, Chloe was grateful for it. She came violently, a cry of Lucifer’s name spilling from her lips. She dimly registered the sound of Lucifer shouting her own name as he no doubt finished as well, but she was too blissed out to properly appreciate it - something which she swore to rectify next time she had the chance.

With one last groan, she removed the toy that was now starting to feel a little uncomfortable and switched it off. She laid it on the bed beside her for now; she could clean it later.

‘Lucifer…?’ she whispered, turning her head to the phone that was now silent.

A hoarse moan answered her, and Chloe smiled, more than a bit proud that he had been reduced to that with only phone sex. Maybe she could be enough for him after all.

‘You okay there?’ she chuckled, still a bit breathless.

Lucifer let out his own chuckle. ‘Okay? Darling, I think I can honestly say that I’ve never felt better.’

And wasn’t that just a massive boost to her ego?

Chloe smiled wider, smugly at first, but then it softened into one that was more fond than proud.

‘I love you,’ she whispered.

She heard Lucifer’s breath hitch but other than that, he was silent for the next few moments. It was by no means the first time she had said those words since he got back from Hell, but his reaction was the same each time: stunned silence. It broke her heart a little that he was still so surprised that someone could love him.

‘And I you,’ he finally said, voice soft and sincere.

It was such a lovely moment… so of course Chloe had to go and ruin it by letting out a giant yawn.

‘Shit, sorry,’ she said, even though Lucifer was chuckling.

‘Wore you out did I? Don’t worry, we’ll soon get that stamina up.’

Chloe rolled her eyes but her stomach flipped at the prospect.

‘But for now,’ he continued, ‘I think it’s time for good Detectives to go to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.’

Chloe let out a disappointed sigh, but agreed, knowing he was right and that she should get some sleep while her brain was allowing it. ‘‘Kay,’ she said, around another yawn, much to embarrassment. ‘Night, Lucifer. Love you.’

There was another moment of stunned silence before he returned the sentiment and ended the phone call.

Chloe smiled as she put her phone on her bedside table, but then groaned when she remembered that she still had to clean both herself and her toy before she could succumb to sleep. Ever the responsible adult, she resisted temptation to leave it until tomorrow and reluctantly got up to take care of the side of sex that they never showed in the movies.

Once that was done and her toy was safely back to being hidden in her drawer, Chloe all but flopped back onto her bed, not even bothering with pyjamas. She crawled under the covers and within minutes, she was falling into the best sleep she had had since this case began.

Less than 48 hours later, a video of Chloe, alone in her bed and hand between her thighs as she screamed her pleasure, was uploaded onto the internet.


	6. Chapter 6

Thursday turned out to be just as frustrating as Wednesday, so on Friday morning, when Chloe arrived at the precinct only to see a bunch of photographers waiting at the entrance, she almost decided to just turn around and go back home. The press must have finally gotten wind of the LAPD’s lack of progress, and she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with them judging her methods or asking questions that she had no answers to.

But deal with them she had to, and so she resisted the urge to flee, and instead took a couple of moments to prepare her “no comment” face and walked towards them. There were only a few, so she reckoned that it would not take too long to get past them and into the safety of the building.

The instant the photographers saw her, they suddenly came alive. Cameras flashed and people called her name, but no one seemed to be asking for any updates about any murders. And that’s when Chloe realised that these people were not the press… they were paparazzi.

Her “no comment” face quickly dissolved into the icy glare of her “get lost” face but the photographers ignored it.

‘What are you doing here?’ she snapped as she put her hand over one camera and tried to shove past another. She was trying to think of any reason that she may be in the spotlight again but came up with nothing. Hot Tub High School was still collecting dust on the ‘B-movie’ shelf, and she hadn’t gone out and done anything crazy to attract attention. Hardly anybody even _recognised_ her these days. Even her Mom had been keeping under the radar lately, sticking to the convention circuit and bit parts.

So why were the paparazzi so eager to get Chloe's photo now?

One photographer seemed to take pity on her, or maybe he just wanted a picture of her reaction, but he wordlessly handed her his phone, a video already cued up.

She took it, trying to resist the urge to snatch it out of the man’s hand, and pressed play. All the blood drained from her face as she instantly realised just what the video was. It was in monochrome and the lighting wasn’t the best, but Chloe knew her own bedroom when she saw it… and the video's bad lighting and lack of colour unfortunately did not make up for its high resolution, making Chloe’s face entirely recognisable, even as it was scrunched up in pleasure.

Someone must have been spying on her when she was on the phone with Lucifer the other night, as Chloe was positive that that is what she was watching; the phone on the pillow beside her head also visible on the video.

Cameras continued to flash around her, but Chloe barely noticed; she didn’t even notice the photographer take his phone back. She felt sick. The video had only been a minute long, but it was of the money shot… and the view count had been in the thousands.

Thousands of people had seen her “o” face.

Thousands of people had seen her having phone sex with the boyfriend who was certainly no longer a secret. The video may not have had sound, but to anyone who knew anything about her life, it would have been obvious whose name she was shouting into the night. “Lucifer” did have a certain unique quality to it.

That moment was supposed to have been private. It had felt special, but now all that Chloe felt was cheap and mortified and sick and she was starting to find it very hard to breathe.

Suddenly there was more shouting, and a pair of strong hands appeared on her shoulders, leading her away from the flashes of the cameras. Chloe vaguely registered someone threatening the photographers with arrest, and someone else threatening them with much worse punishments, but she couldn’t clear the fog from her head enough to put names to them.

She was in shock, she realised.

What felt like forever later, the strong hands on her shoulders had led her through the precinct doors and away from the still flashing cameras.

‘…ective! Chloe!’

With a jolt, Chloe snapped back to reality, and saw that she was now in the precinct elevator, Dan and Lucifer in front of her.

Dan looked worried. Lucifer looked furious.

‘What… how...’ A lump caught in Chloe’s throat and she swallowed it down.

Thankfully Dan had understood the questions that Chloe was not quite able to voice yet. ‘As far as we can tell, the video first surfaced at about 2am this morning. Ella is working with Cyber to try and trace it. We’re also working on getting all the copies taken down.’ He glanced at Lucifer, who had taken a step back and was leaning against the elevator wall, looking very much like he was ready to go back and show the paparazzi downstairs what Hell was awaiting them. ‘We got most of them, I think, but some of the shadier websites are proving to be a bit difficult.’

‘It’s too late, anyway,’ she whispered, trying not to let out any sobs or tears. ‘It’s out there now. So many people have seen it already.’

Dan lowered his head and stayed silent, knowing that Chloe was right. The damage had been done.

The elevator dinged, ending the conversation, and Chloe sucked in a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and braced herself for the short walk to Ella’s lab.

As she made her way through the bullpen, she tried to ignore the looks she was getting, but it was difficult. Some were of sympathy, some were pitying, and some were lecherous. Chloe did her best to glare daggers at those ones but couldn’t quite find it in her to put a decent effort into it.

Lucifer, however got a much different treatment. He got a few subtle nods, a couple of thumbs up, and even one attempt at a high five that did not go down well for the instigator. Chloe may have not been up to giving her best “back off” vibes, but Lucifer certainly was. She was immensely grateful for his hand on her shoulder. Without it, she may have just sprinted to Ella’s lab, and there would have gone what little dignity or respect she had left.

The blinds of Ella’s lab were thankfully already closed, so nobody saw Chloe slump against the counter as soon as the door shut behind her. Well no one apart from Lucifer, Dan, and Ella, of course, but Chloe trusted them not to judge her.

Ella instantly ran to her side and gave her a traditional Lopez hug. ‘Don’t worry Decker, we’ll get this perv,’ she said against Chloe’s shoulder. It wasn’t until Chloe reluctantly stood up properly again that she let go. ‘I’ve figured out which website was first to upload it, and Cyber is working on tracing the IP address. Lucifer has gotten most of the big-name porn sites to take the video down the minute anybody tries to upload it, so don’t worry, we are on top of this.’

Chloe flinched at the mention of porn sites but sent Lucifer a grateful look. No doubt he had used a few of his favours.

‘Thanks guys,’ she said to the room at large. ‘It... it means a lot.’

The solemn silence of the lab was broken by Chloe’s phone ringing. One glance at the caller ID and Chloe was worried she was going to have another panic attack. ‘It’s my Mom,’ she whispered to nobody in particular; she just continued to stare at the phone, wondering how long she could put off the conversation.

A hand slowly took the phone from hers and she looked up to see Dan. ‘I got this,’ he told her. Chloe gave him a grateful nod and watched as he left the room to find somewhere private to take the call.

‘S-so how long do you think Cyber will take?’ she asked Ella.

Ella shrugged. ‘No idea sorry. If this guy is as crafty as he is creepy, it could take a while.’ Chloe deflated at that. She was hoping she would be able to hide out in Ella’s lab while they waited. ‘This guy’s got dedication, I’ll give him that,’ continued Ella. ‘I’ve been to your apartment, and that tree outside your window would be an absolute bitch to climb. They could have used a drone of course, which is less impressive, but then again, the video is really steady for a drone cam- Chloe, are you okay?’

Chloe was definitely not okay; she had just realised something that had been insanely obvious. She quickly barged past Ella and only just made it to the bin before that morning’s breakfast made a reappearance.

‘It’s the wrong angle,’ she told the two confused people staring at her.

‘The bin?’ asked Lucifer, now even more confused.

Chloe shook her head and slumped down onto to the floor beside the bin. ‘The video,’ she clarified. ‘It’s the wrong angle to be from my outside my window. The camera must be on my bookcase. The one in the corner next to my window.’

‘But that means that someone must have put it there,’ said Ella, needlessly, a hint of panic in her voice. ‘Unless this is Maze’s idea of a practical joke.’

‘She wouldn’t dare,’ growled Lucifer. His eyes flashed red for a second, but thankfully Ella missed it.

‘Yeah, yeah, you’re right, Maze wouldn’t do this. But that’s kinda worse. Who else could have gotten the camera there? And why? Because this is like A-Grade stalker stuff right here.’ She must have realised that Chloe’s face was getting paler, because she suddenly stopped her rambling. ‘Oh, shit, Chloe. I’m sorry. She made a move towards her but then stopped and eyed the bin warily. ‘’I’ll just go get a new bin bag… and air freshener.’

Chloe nodded mutely, only just registering the click of the door as Ella left. The sound of glass breaking a few seconds later made her jump, and she looked up to see that Lucifer had thrown what she hoped had been an empty beaker. His eyes kept flickering from red to brown as he tried to keep his control.

He reached for another beaker, and Chloe realised that she had to interfere before he turned Ella’s lab into one great big safety hazard.

‘Lucifer, stop,’ she said, amazed that her voice remained firm when the rest of her felt like she was ready to break.

At her voice, he instantly froze and turned to look at her, red eyes fading to brown again. Something must have shown on her face because he instantly put the beaker down and came to sit beside her, taking her hand in his. It was exactly what she needed, and Chloe let out a small but relieved sigh as she rested her head against the cupboard behind her.

‘We’ll find whoever did this,’ Lucifer vowed. ‘No one violates your privacy like that and gets away with it. I’ll go to Hell and get a Hellhound to track the bastard if I have to.’

Chloe tensed a little at the suggestion. He’d been to Hell enough times for her already, she didn’t want him doing it again. Even the shortest trip would be too long. ‘I don’t think that will be necessary,’ she managed to say, almost succeeding in keeping the fear out of her voice. ‘I’m sure forensics will be able to find something.’ She wasn’t looking forward to sending a team of coworkers to her bedroom to search for evidence, but it was sounding a lot less terrifying now that the Hellhound suggestion was on the table.

Lucifer must have sensed that it wasn’t him she was trying to convince, because his posture suddenly went from tense and wrathful, to soft and comforting (though the wrath was certainly still there, bubbling beneath the surface). ‘They will,’ he assured her, running his thumb over hers softly. ‘I have no doubt that Miss Lopez will do her very best to find the one responsible. And as for the video, try not to let it worry you, Detective. People post videos of themselves like this all the time. There’s many a sex tape of me out there. In fact, I did one with Misty Canyons. You can watch it if you like. It’s on-’

‘You mean, do I want to watch my boyfriend having sex with a porn star?’ snapped Chloe, interrupting him. ‘I think I’ll pass.’ She knew he was just trying to comfort her, but him mentioning ex-partners and all the sex he had had was not helping.

Lucifer looked a little taken aback at her outburst. ‘It was years ago, Detective,’ he said, trying to assuage her jealousy.

Chloe let out a frustrated sigh. ‘I know. I’m sorry, Lucifer. I’m just… I’m not like you, okay. I’m not fine with everyone seeing me like that. I wasn’t even really like that when I was 19 and took my top off for that awful movie.’

‘Hey now, let’s not bring excellent cinema down with this.’

Chloe’s lips twitched up in amusement and she gave him a small but grateful smile. Lucifer smiled back but then became serious again.

‘I’m sorry for being insensitive,’ he said. ‘It won’t happen again.’

Chloe squeezed his hand again. ‘Thank you, Lucifer.’

‘And to prove it, I won’t even ask you how you knew Misty Canyons was a porn star.’

Despite everything, Chloe laughed.

The door opened but it was just Ella coming back with a new roll of bin bags. She stopped when she saw Chloe and Lucifer on the floor, her gaze fixing on their joined hands. ‘At least you guys can stop pretending that you aren’t an item now,’ she said, smiling. ‘Because let me tell ya, you were not fooling anyone.’ She paused thinking. ‘Well, maybe Dan.’

She went to work, putting the new bin bag in the now empty bin. She must have taken the other bag out when she first left, Chloe realised as a new wave of shame rushed over her. That explained why the lingering smell of vomit was nowhere near as strong as it should have been in the closed off lab. Ella sprayed a little air freshener about, taking care of said smell and then wordlessly handed Chloe a pack of breath mints. Chloe mumbled a quick “thank you” as she took them, but she couldn’t quite meet Ella’s eye.

Just another thing to add to the list of embarrassing things to happen to her today, she supposed.

Now overly conscious of the acidic taste of vomit in her mouth, she quickly put one, then two mints in her mouth. The minty taste made her feel a bit better and she managed to gather the courage to look at Ella. ‘Sorry about that, Ella. Thank you for cleaning up, I owe you one.’

Ella waved her off. ‘You don’t owe me anything. If I had just found out there were secret cameras in my bedroom, I doubt I would have even made it to the bin.’

Chloe opened her mouth to reply, and maybe apologise again, but before she could, the door to the lab opened and Dan stepped in, a sombre look on his face. ‘What is it?’ she asked him, anxiety making her stomach twist uncomfortably.

‘Nick Hofmeister’s body has been found,’ he told them, ‘and it sounds like it’s our killer’s MO. Slit throat, public place… and a number 3 carved into his forehead.’

A silence fell over the room and Chloe knew that they were all thinking the same thing. These murders were definitely about her.


	7. Chapter 7

Chloe and Lucifer stopped by the crime scene just long enough to confirm that Nick’s death definitely fit their killer’s MO and then left Dan to start that investigation while they met up with a small forensics team at Chloe’s apartment. Ella had obviously chosen the team, as it consisted of three women (including Ella herself) who Chloe recognised as being fairly new to the precinct and therefore had no prejudice against her for things like Pierce or Palmetto. As much as Lucifer’s presence had helped, Chloe was still not exactly the most popular person in the precinct, and knowing that knowing that her personal space was not being searched by people who would use whatever they found as ammunition against her made it that little bit easier to step over the threshold.

The first thing she did after she entered her apartment (after taking a deep breath and steeling herself back into “cop mode”) was head up to her bedroom. The camera was not hard to find now that she was looking for it, wedged between two books. Chloe was extremely grateful that Lucifer had followed her upstairs; having him stand beside her, silently vibrating with righteous anger was oddly comforting.

Ella appeared at her side a moment later, snapping on some gloves and taking the camera. ‘Looks pretty generic,’ she said as she put it into an evidence bag. ‘I was hoping for something a bit more hi-tech, you know. Specialist stuff that’s easier to track. But it looks like one of those ones with an inbuilt hard-drive and Bluetooth connection, so Cyber might be able to do something with that.’

Chloe nodded, trying to latch onto Ella’s hopeful optimism.

Ella put the evidence bag in her kit bag and then got to work on dusting the bookshelf for prints. ‘I got Tracy and Mels looking for more cameras downstairs,’ she told them as she worked. She paused and slowly turned to face Chloe and Lucifer, a tentative look on her face. ‘So are we thinking that it’s our resident serial killer who planted the cameras? I mean, what with the on point timing and all.’

Chloe gulped down her fears and answered Ella with only a slight tremor in her voice. ‘The timing does seem a bit too coincidental, but we, uh, we don’t have any evidence of that yet, so until we do, let’s uh, just stick to the facts.’

Ella nodded and turned back to dusting the books. ‘No scary speculation. Gotcha.’

A few minutes later, and Ella had finished cataloguing the fingerprints on the books and was hopeful that they may belong to someone other than Chloe, Trixie, or Maze. Unfortunately, Chloe didn’t share her hope. If her creepy stalker was smart enough to break in without anyone noticing, they were probably smart enough to wear gloves. She thanked Ella anyway and walked back downstairs, trying not to wince at the sight of two near-strangers combing through her apartment.

‘Found another one!’

The shout came from Mels, who was over by Chloe’s hallway table. Chloe and Lucifer hurried over to her, shortly followed by Ella, and saw another camera, identical to the other, nestled between the leaves of Chloe’s fake fern.

Chloe looked between the camera and the living room, judging the range of view the camera would have. ‘You can see most of the living area and kitchen from here,’ she said, her heart beating faster. She took a couple of breaths, trying to stop the oncoming panic attack.

Lucifer’s hand was instantly on her shoulder. ‘We’ll get this bastard,’ he assured her. His eyes flashed red for a fraction of a second before he managed to reign in his anger. Chloe figured that this was why he had been mostly silent since entering the apartment; he didn’t want to draw attention to himself if he lost control.

After another few breaths, she managed to calm herself down. She reached up to squeeze Lucifer’s hand that was still on her shoulder, hoping the action conveyed her gratitude.

‘Damn straight, we will,’ said Ella with the same conviction before she bagged up the camera and took it to place it with the other.

Mels started dusting around the fern for prints, so Chloe let Lucifer lead her toward the couch. ‘We will catch this bastard,’ he repeated, ‘but until we do, perhaps it’s best you and the spawn found somewhere else to stay. You could always stay at the penthouse.’

Chloe took his hand in hers, once again squeezing it in gratitude. ‘Thank you, Lucifer. That means a lot, it really does… but it also feels like it would mean I was letting this creep win. So I, uh, I’m not gonna run. Trixie can stay with Dan.’

Lucifer looked like he wanted to argue, but he wisely stayed silent and accepted her decision. ‘Very well,’ he said. ‘If that’s what you would prefer. But I insist that you don’t stay here alone. Either myself or Maze should be here in case anyone comes back. I know you can handle yourself, but safety in numbers.’

He gave a tentative smile, which Chloe returned. She wanted to tell him that she would be fine on her own, but truth be told, she was freaking out. Someone had come into her home and she hadn’t even realised. Having the Devil and a demon back her up sounded like too good of an offer to pass up.

‘Safety in numbers,’ she agreed.

\----

After combing through the whole apartment, Ella and her team found no more cameras, much to Chloe’s relief. Unfortunately, they hadn’t found anything else either. Any prints or DNA found all belonged to the apartment’s occupants, and the cameras were totally clean. The cameras weren’t even specific enough to narrow down a list of retailers and purchasers and Cyber still hadn’t had any luck with the video, so the only minuscule lead they had was that, in order to be able to access the Bluetooth on the cameras, their killer had to have been within a certain range. Unfortunately, that range covered the who apartment building, the car park, and the street outside.

Chloe’s apartment building did have security surveillance, but only for the entrance. Still, she had contacted the landlord and had managed to secure a copy of the footage for the past week with relative ease. It took her the better part of the day to go through it all, and the only thing she got from it was a migraine. With no video evidence of anything suspicious, Chloe knew that that meant she had to rely on witness statements… which meant talking to her neighbours.

She was about to go fetch Lucifer so they could do just that when she was interrupted by Dan.

‘Hey, Chlo, I printed you out a summary of Nick Hofmeister’s case.’

Dan handed her a sheet of paper, which Chloe quickly skimmed over. There wasn’t much to go on, which fit with the last two murders. There was Rohypnol in Nick’s system, but this time it had been injected rather than digested with a drink; there was a small puncture wound on Nick’s neck that corresponded with that of a needle or syringe.

‘I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to take over the lead on this one, seeing as you are busy with…’

‘No, it’s okay,’ Chloe told him hurriedly, hoping to avoid more conversation about the events of the day. ‘I can still work this. I just, uh, I need to ask my neighbours to see if they have noticed anyone hanging around, so if you could hold the fort until tomorrow, I’d appreciate it.’

‘No problem,’ said Dan. ‘Anything you need.’

Chloe couldn’t have asked for a better opening.

‘Actually, there is one thing I wanted to ask you. Do you think you could take Trixie for a while? Until we catch this guy.’

‘Absolutely,’ Dan agreed at once. ‘It makes me feel a little better actually. I wanted to ask, but I wasn’t sure if you two were going to stay with your Mum... or with Lucifer.’

Chloe shifted her feet awkwardly. ‘Yeah, about that. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you we were together. It’s still new and I just... I wanted a bit of time before it became public knowledge.’

‘I get it,’ said Dan, comfortingly. ‘I mean, I don’t really get why _Lucifer_ , but I get why you kept it to yourselves.’

Chloe wanted to tell Dan the very long list of reasons for “why Lucifer”, but this wasn’t the time. She knew when to pick her battles, so she let his comment slide for now and just settled for being grateful that he wasn’t kicking up too much of a fuss.

‘Well, uh, good,’ she said, still feeling a tad awkward. ‘And thank you for taking Trixie.’ She held up the sheet of paper still in her hand. ‘And for this. I’ll get to work on it properly tomorrow morning. Unless, of course, you solve the case by then.’

Dan laughed, and the awkwardness broken. ‘Tomorrow morning, then,’ he said, and then headed back to his desk, muttering something about Chloe not taking the weekend off and how he wasn't surprised.

After Dan had gone, Chloe took her chance to leave before anyone else interrupted. She did her best to ignore the few pitying looks she was still getting as she made her way to the break room where she figured Lucifer must be.

She wasn’t wrong, he was there, but he wasn’t alone. Detective Reeves, one of Malcolm’s old buddies, was also there, and the two seemed to be having some kind of standoff.

‘Hey, everything okay?’ she asked, announcing her presence.

‘Nothing to be concerned about, Detective,’ said Lucifer, still staring at Reeves. ‘Detective Reeves here was just getting back to work.’

Reeves threw his hands up in surrender and shuffled past Lucifer. ‘Whatever, man. It’s not my fault you can’t take a compliment.’

Chloe got the distinct impression that whatever “compliment” Reeves had given Lucifer had to do with her and the video. And judging by the fact that Reeves’ eyes quickly flickered to her chest as he walked past her, she was bang on the money.

She suppressed a shudder. Some people were so gross.

‘So, what was that about?’ Chloe asked Lucifer, trying to make it sound casual.

‘Just Reeves voicing some… unwelcome opinions,’ said Lucifer, still eyeing the doorway that Reeves had just left through.

Chloe decided that, despite her curiosity, she probably didn’t want to know, and promptly changed the subject. ‘So, uh, no luck with the security camera. So I was thinking we should go ask my neighbours, see if they have seen anything suspicious over the past few days.’

Lucifer brightened a bit at that. ‘You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met your neighbours.’

‘Well, now's you chance,’ said Chloe. She just wished it was under better circumstances.

\----

There were three other apartments in the complex in which Chloe lived, so she figured that she would have just enough time to talk to them all before she was due to finish her shift. And then she could just go straight home, seeing as Dan was now picking up Trixie.

The first person she and Lucifer talked to was Gladys Vellamy, an 80-year-old woman who was the complex’s longest resident.

‘A break in?’ asked Gladys, her eyes narrowing in anger rather that widening with fear.

‘Yes, but it was targeted at me, personally,’ Chloe assured her.

‘Well I hope the rotters get what’s coming to them,’ said Gladys before taking a sip of her tea. ‘If my Edgar were still with us, he would have sorted them out. He was in the army, you know.’

Chloe did know. Gladys seemed to mention it almost every time the two of them spoke.

Chloe nodded politely. ‘Yes, I’m sure he would have, but it’s probably best to leave it to the police, which is why, me and my partner are here.’

Gladys gave him a warm smile. ‘It’s so nice to see a man with a sense of fashion,’ she told him. ‘These days it’s all ugly print shirts and pants with no belts, showing their underwear to the world with no shame.’

‘Anyway,’ said Chloe, cutting in before Gladys could get into a proper rant. ‘Have you seen anyone hanging around the apartment complex lately? Perhaps in the last couple of weeks? Someone acting suspicious or anyone you didn’t recognise?’

Gladys thought for a moment as she sipped her tea. ‘I’m afraid I don’t go out much, dear,’ she said, sympathetically. ‘I don’t even see the neighbours that often. Though, in the case of your roommate, that’s probably a good thing.’

Lucifer chuckled at that but stopped when Chloe elbowed him.

‘Well thank you for your time Mrs Vellamy,’ said Chloe, putting down her untouched tea and standing up. ‘And please do let me know if you notice anything.’

‘Of course, dear. And good luck. I’m sure you and your handsome partner will catch whoever broke in.’

Chloe was careful to stay neutral on the subject - rule one of police work was not making promises you may not be able to keep - but thanked Gladys for her time and her confidence before she and Lucifer moved on to the next neighbour.

Doug Sinclair was the complex’s newest resident, having moved in barely a year ago, and thankfully, he too was home; Chloe really wanted to get this over with, she didn’t want to waste time making secondary house calls if people weren’t home.

‘Hi, Chloe,’ he greeted upon answering the door. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘I’m afraid this isn’t a neighbourly house call,’ said Chloe, showing her badge. ‘There was a break in in the complex.’

Doug opened the door wider and welcomed them in. ‘A break in?’ he asked as he directed them to the living room so they could all sit down.

‘Yes,’ said Chloe, ‘but it seems to be directed at me, so, at this stage, we don’t expect there to be any danger to any of the other residents.’

After a moment, Doug’s eyes widened. ‘This doesn’t have anything to do with that video does it?’ He suddenly turned sheepish. ‘One of my friends sent it to me. I didn't realise what it was until I opened the file.’

Chloe forced herself to remain composed. She supposed it had been too much to hope that none of her neighbours had seen the video. And Doug was in the targeted demographic – young, male, and single.

‘It may be related,’ she said, her toned a lot more clipped than intended. Doug wisely didn’t comment any more on the subject.

‘So, we were just wondering if you may have noticed anyone skulking around the building at odd hours,’ said Lucifer, jumping in.

‘You mean besides Maze?’ Doug asked with a forced laugh.

Chloe took pity on him; he seemed almost as embarrassed as she was, and she did appreciate the attempt to try and lighten the mood.

‘Besides Maze,’ she confirmed, her tone much lighter than before. ‘We don’t have an exact time frame, but we’re thinking sometime within the last week.’

Doug thought for a moment before shaking his head sadly. ‘I’m sorry, Chloe, but I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary.’

Chloe did her best to hide her disappointment and thanked Doug for his time.

‘Not a problem,’ said Doug, earnestly. ‘Just let me know if you need anything.’

Chloe gave him a small but grateful smile before she and Lucifer made their exit.

‘Third time’s the charm,’ said Lucifer as Chloe knocked on the door of the last neighbour.

‘Yeah, maybe,’ said Chloe, trying to be optimistic. Casey Perkins was the most sociable of the complex, always going in or out the building, so logically that made her the most likely to have noticed someone sneaking around.

Chloe was just about knock on the door again when the door suddenly opened, revealing a gorgeous woman who could give Maze a run for her money when it came to revealing clothing – though while Maze’s style was more warrior-dominatrix, Casey’s clothes were a lot more elegant and tasteful. Chloe had not spent a lot of time with her, but the little she had had convinced her that her neighbour was an escort – maybe not “high-end”, but not cheap either.

Casey smiled brightly at the sight of Chloe and Lucifer – as well as being the most sociable resident, she was also the most friendly.

‘Hi. Chloe. What can I do for you?’ she asked as she welcomed them in. ‘How’s young Trixie going?’

‘She’s well, thank you,’ said Chloe. ‘But I’m afraid this isn’t a social visit.’

‘Is this about that video?’ asked Casey, her voice becoming more serious but still retaining her friendly tone. ‘You were gorgeous in it, by the way.’ She turned to Lucifer. ‘And I bet you’re the devil who was whispering naughty things in her ear.’ She winked at him and held out her hand. ‘I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Casey.’

‘Lucifer Morningstar,’ Lucifer introduced himself with a smile, shaking Casey’s hand. ‘I must say, you are definitely my favourite neighbour I have met today.’

If Casey was surprised at Lucifer’s name, she didn’t show it. Or maybe Chloe was too busy trying to get rid of the blush that had appeared at the mention of the video to notice. ‘Mmm, yep, that voice was just made for phone sex,’ she purred.

Lucifer chuckled but Chloe cut him off before he could reply. ‘Anyway,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘We just wanted to ask you if you have seen anyone suspicious hanging around lately. Apart from Maze,’ she quickly added.

Casey thought for a moment. ‘Sorry, Chloe, I don’t think I have. But I have been pretty busy with clients lately, so I haven’t been home a lot.’

‘And you haven’t noticed anything when leaving or coming home?’

Casey shook her head. ‘Sorry.’

Chloe’s shoulders slumped, defeated. She had known it was a long shot asking the neighbours, but a part of her had still hoped that it would pay off.

‘Well, thanks anyway,’ she said before gesturing to Lucifer that they should leave.

‘Lovely to meet you, Casey,’ he said, bowing a little.

Casey giggled. ‘And you. You and Chloe are welcome any time.’ The way her eyes roamed over Lucifer’s body left no doubt as to what she was implying.

Acting fast so that Lucifer didn’t have a chance to agree to anything, Chloe grabbed him by the arm and steered him towards the door, practically dragging him outside. ‘Easy, Detective,’ said Lucifer, more amused than annoyed. ‘That’s a Tom Ford you’re crinkling.’

Chloe let go of his arm, muttering an apology.

Lucifer gave a dismissive wave before looking back towards Casey’s apartment. ‘She’s quite nice,’ he said, turning back to Chloe. ‘Maybe we should take her up on her offer.’ He gave an exaggerated eyebrow wiggle which on any other day may have made Chloe laugh.

But not today.

‘Lucifer, she’s an escort. An expensive one.’

‘Worth every penny I’m sure.’

‘Well maybe you should go and find out,’ Chloe snapped. She picked up her pace to walk ahead, but Lucifer pulled her back.

‘Detective, I didn’t mean…’

Chloe let out an exhausted sigh. ‘I know. I’m sorry. It’s just… been a really bad day.’

Lucifer took her hand in his, comfortingly. ‘We will get this guy,’ he said, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. ‘And people will forget the video soon enough. Celebrities do stupid things all the time. I bet tomorrow there will be a whole new scandal for everyone to latch onto.’

‘Yeah, I guess,’ said Chloe as they started walking again, this time heading to her own apartment. ‘Doesn’t make it any easier now, though.’

‘Is there anything I can do?’ asked Lucifer.

Chloe bit her lip. ‘Can you… Would it be okay if you stayed the night? Not for sex,’ she quickly added, lest he get the wrong idea. ‘I know I said that I didn’t want to let this guy win, but I would sleep a lot easier if you were there with me.’

Lucifer squeezed her hand. ‘Of course, Detective. Whatever you need.’


	8. Chapter 8

Lucifer didn’t let go of Chloe’s hand. Not only did it seem to be helping comfort her, but it was also the only thing keeping him tethered. He’d been trying to act normal for Chloe, but there was still a rage bubbling within him, just beneath the surface.

_How dare someone do this to Chloe! How dare someone violate her privacy like this!_

But focusing on Chloe helped keep the beast inside him at bay. It stopped him from tearing the whole of Los Angeles apart to find the pitiful excuse for a human being who had done this.

But just because he wasn’t going on a maybe-not-quite-so-metaphorical rampage, didn’t mean that he couldn’t send somebody else to do it for him.

‘So, who am I stabbing?’ asked Maze as soon as Lucifer and Chloe had walked through the front door of Chloe’s apartment. Chloe jumped a little but soon calmed down when she realised who it was.

‘You’re not stabbing anyone,’ said Chloe before Lucifer could say anything to the contrary.

Maze shrugged and put her knives away. ‘Whatever. There are other ways of punishing people. Not that I see what all the fuss is about.’ She gave Chloe a long and lingering look. ‘Who knew Granny-panties Decker could be so hot?’

Chloe put her free hand on her forehead in exasperation and then let go of Lucifer’s hand so she could go to the kitchen. She pulled out three glass and the bottle of scotch Lucifer had gotten her for her last birthday.

‘You read my mind, Detective,’ said Lucifer, quickly joining her. He’d been dying for a drink all day, having emptied his flask long before noon.

Chloe poured them all a glass each and then turned to address Maze. ‘Look, I appreciate the gesture,’ she told her, ‘but we don’t even have anyone to punish yet.’

Maze rolled her eyes. ‘You want a job done… Give me what you got and I’ll find the guy.’

Chloe shifted awkwardly. ‘Well, uh… actually…’

‘We have a great pile of nothing,’ said Lucifer, taking pity on her. He snatched up his scotch and downed it in one go. When he put the glass back down, Chloe wordlessly refilled it. He gave her a grateful smile and then took a sip of his second drink. This one he would drink more slowly, he decided; no sense wasting good alcohol by not tasting it.

Maze looked between the two incredulously. ‘Nothing? Really?’ She turned to Lucifer. ‘Then why the hell did you call me here?’

‘Because, Maze, until we catch this guy, it’s best if Chloe isn’t alone in the house. Whoever this miscreant is, he’s already proved himself to be an extremely talented cat burglar. Plus, I was hoping we would have something to go on,’ he added, taking another sip of his drink to drown his frustration.

‘Protection detail?’ Maze asked, not surprised, but curious. ‘I figured you would have her well and truly _covered_.’ She smirked at the double entendre and Lucifer finally understood why Chloe was always rolling her eyes at him.

‘Yes, well I’m sure the Detective doesn’t want me around all time,’ he said. Chloe opened her mouth to say something, possibly a denial (or was that just his own wishful thinking?), but Lucifer didn’t give her the chance. ‘Besides, two pairs of eyes are better than one.’

Maze just shrugged. ‘Whatever. I take it you’re taking the first shift.’

‘I'm still here, you know?’ huffed Chloe, clearly irritated. It was rather adorable really. ‘And I’m starting to change my mind about this whole protection detail thing.’

Lucifer’s eyes widened as a sudden burst of panic threatened to overwhelm him. He had meant what he had said before - about Chloe being capable of taking care of herself - but it didn’t stop the very real fear he had that he would lose her to whatever sicko was tormenting her.

He had just spent a century without her, he wasn’t ready to live without her again.

Chloe must have noticed his panic because she put her drink down and reached for his hand again, her features softening. ‘I didn’t mean that,’ she said, soothingly. ‘I’m sorry. But can you two _please_ not talk about me like I’m not in the room? I would like a say in this.’

Lucifer took a second to allow his heartbeat to get back down to a normal rate. ‘Of course, Detective,’ he said once he was sure that the panic attack had been averted. ‘Apologies. Would you still like me to stay tonight?’

Another bolt of panic shot through him at the thought of her saying no, but this one was not quite as intense as the last. If she said no, she would at least still have Maze with her.

‘Yes, of course I do,’ said Chloe, and the panic subsided again. She turned to Maze. ‘But we don’t need to organise shifts or anything. It makes it sound so formal. Can we just play it by ear? I mean, I’ll probably be with Lucifer most of the time anyway.’

Lucifer preened a little at the confirmation that Chloe wanted to spend time with him; even though he already knew it to be true, it always felt so good to hear her say it.

‘You know, we could get a Hellhound,’ said Maze. ‘Any one of them would be able to track this guy by midnight.’

‘No hellhounds,’ said Chloe with finality.

Maze just shrugged again. ‘Fine. If you wanna do it the long way, be my guest.’ She downed the rest of her scotch, leaving the empty glass on the kitchen counter. ‘Well watching you two make heart eyes at each other all night doesn’t sound fun, and since I’m not stabbing anybody-’ she threw them both an accusatory glare ‘-I’m gonna head out. Call me if something interesting happens or if Chloe gets sick of you.’ That last part was directed at Lucifer, who gave her his own glare in response.

Maze, annoyingly, did not care. The Devil’s ire was no longer something she was afraid of, and Lucifer wasn’t sure how he felt about that. After a hundred years of demons quaking in fear at the slightest turn of his head, he had forgotten how much leeway Maze had always had. Even in the early days of their friendship she had gotten away with far more than any other demon had. But now? Now she well and truly was her own demon. And, as such, was no longer his to command.

‘Thanks, Maze,’ said Chloe, picking up Maze’s empty glass and taking it to the dishwasher, as if by habit (which, knowing Maze, it probably was). ‘We’ll let you know if we need you.’

Maze didn’t reply, she just waved as she headed out the door.

‘So, what do you feel like for dinner?’ asked Chloe. She opened her fridge and grimaced. ‘Maybe we should eat out.’

Lucifer had a quip about how he would refer to eat _her_ out but held it back. Sexual puns were definitely not a good idea right now. Instead, he walked around the kitchen counter to join her at the fridge. He made a grimace of his own. There really was not a lot of options.

‘Chinese?’ he asked reaching for his phone. He was half-tempted to call his grocer delivery guy for her, but decided against it, not wanting to risk insulting Chloe’s independence. Besides, he could tell by her eyes that she was already working out her shopping list.

Chloe closed the fridge with a sigh and leaned back against him. Lucifer instinctively wrapped his arms around her middle and was rewarded with a happy hum from her. ‘Chinese sounds great,’ she said.

Using one hand, Lucifer texted the owner of his favourite Chinese place and put in their usual order.

‘Thank you,’ said Chloe, snuggling more into his embrace.

‘No need to thank me, darling. Leandro is always happy for my business.’ He finished the order and hit send. ‘There. Food will be here within the hour.’

Chloe smiled softly and looked up at him. ‘I didn’t mean that – though thank you for the food as well. I meant, thank you for being here for me. I don’t think I could have gotten through today without you.’

Lucifer placed a quick kiss to her hair. ‘I’ll always be here for you. For as long as you let me.’

\----

Dinner arrived 45 minutes later, and as they ate and chatted and flirted, Lucifer could almost forget that anything out of the ordinary had happened that day. But as the night wore on, it became more and more obvious that Chloe was not okay. She kept finding reasons not to go to bed, insisting on one more movie, one more glass of wine, until finally, at 1am when she was barely keeping her eyes open, Lucifer decided that enough was enough.

‘Come on,’ he said, lightly grasping Chloe's arm to pull her to her feet. ‘Time for the tired Detective to go to bed.’

Chloe looked like she was going to protest, but then she sighed and gave up the fight. ‘Yeah. Yeah, I guess you’re right,’ she said, rubbing her eyes. ‘Did you bring anything to sleep in? No, wait, of course you didn’t, we came straight from work.’ She took a minute to think. ‘I’m pretty sure I’ve got some of Dan’s old stuff still.’

Wearing Dan’s hand-me-downs did not sound very appealing, but Lucifer very much doubted Chloe would want him to sleep naked like he usually did. So he bit his tongue and followed Chloe up to her room. She paused ever so slightly at the threshold, clearly rattled by what had happened, but she stepped through the doorway nonetheless.

Ever the brave one, his Detective.

But being brave still didn’t stop her from being paranoid; the first thing she did was check her bookcase, as if she expected there to be another camera waiting for her.

To be fair, Lucifer was checking the rest of the room.

Once they were both sure there were no cameras hiding anywhere, Chloe directed him to the bottom drawer of her dresser, where he found the very limited options of sleepwear. They were just the sort of drab, inferior cotton pants that Lucifer would have expected from Dan, but they were better than nothing. (Well, no, that wasn’t true; nothing would have been far preferable, but it was not an option right now.) He picked out a pair of light grey pants that looked like they would stop only just above his ankles, but then paused, wondering what he should do. He really didn’t have a problem with stripping down right there, but this wasn’t his bedroom, and he didn’t want to assume he was welcome to do so.

Chloe was already halfway to her bathroom, bundle of pyjamas in her arms, when she noticed his predicament. ‘I won’t be a second,’ she said. ‘And then you can use the bathroom after me if you want. Or you can get changed in here, I don’t mind.’

She left to get changed, closing the door behind her. There were a few moments where Lucifer heard shuffling and scraping sounds, Chloe probably checking for cameras, but then all fell silent so Lucifer decided he may as well change into the grey monstrosity that Dan thought counted as pants. He grimaced at the low-quality fabric, but once on, they weren’t as bad as expected. He would manage for the night, but he made a mental note to sneak a few of his own belongings into the drawer.

When Chloe got back, Lucifer couldn’t help but notice how the clothes she had chosen were probably some of the least revealing sleepwear imaginable. While the fabrics were still light and she therefore wouldn’t overheat during the hot Los Angeles night, they still covered almost every inch of skin apart from her head, hands, and feet. It made quite a contrast to his own bare torso.

He chose not to comment on it, however. He was sure that Linda would tell him that covering up after being exposed like Chloe had was very normal.

‘I got a spare toothbrush out for you,’ said Chloe, bringing Lucifer out of his thoughts. ‘It’s by the sink.’

Lucifer nodded his thanks and quickly went to brush his teeth. When he returned, Chloe was sitting in her bed, eyeing her bookcase. Despite being so close to sleep not minutes beforehand, she seemed wide awake now, though her exhaustion still showed on her face. Lucifer turned the bedroom lights off, slid underneath the blankets beside her and opened his arms in invitation. She immediately tucked herself into his side but didn’t move her eyes away from where they had found the camera.

‘The cameras are gone,’ he said soothingly as he pressed a kiss to her hair.

‘I know,’ said Chloe, finally tearing her gaze away from the bookcase and looking up at him. ‘Just being silly, I guess.’

‘You are not being silly at all. And if you want a professional opinion about it, I’ll happily call Doctor Linda so she can tell you the same thing.’

Chloe gave him a small but grateful smile and the pair eased down so that they were now lying down on the bed face to face. Lucifer had to relinquish his hold on her to do so, but it was worth it to be able to properly see her, even if her features were hidden in the shadows of the dark room.

‘I’m scared, Lucifer,’ Chloe whispered.

Something in Lucifer’s chest tightened. He really hoped he got the chance to have a go at the bastard who did this to her before the police did. He wanted a chance to repay them for every bit of fear that they had caused Chloe and then some.

But behind Lucifer’s anger was a different emotion – one he couldn’t quite name. Chloe was always so brave; she hardly ever admitted to being afraid. They were a bit similar in that respect. And yet here she was, trusting him enough to let her guard down.

It made him feel both privileged and terrified.

He reached over to brush a lock of her hair out of her face and ran his fingers over her cheek. ‘I won’t ever let anything happen to you,’ he vowed. The words had tumbled out without him meaning them to, but he still meant every word. ‘Even if I have to go to Hell and back. Again.’

Chloe’s eyes widened and she snatched his hand and held it in hers. ‘No.’

Lucifer raised an eyebrow. ‘No?’

‘Please don’t go back to Hell’, said Chloe, almost pleadingly. ‘Ever. I don’t know what it’s like down there for you, but I know how much you hate it, and I couldn’t bear to be the reason you go back.’

A rush of affection hit Lucifer like a tidal wave. He didn’t think he would ever get used to having someone care about him so much; no one had ever really cared about his happiness, yet Chloe seemed to be trying to make up for that all by herself.

She really did love him.

So maybe it was time do what Linda had suggested and break the loop he had been stuck in lately; it was time to open up a bit and trust that his weakness wouldn't be used against him. And if he could trust anyone, it was Chloe.

‘I can’t promise I’ll never end up back there,’ Lucifer told her, ‘but I promise I’ll do all I can to stay on Earth. With you.’

Chloe’s eyes shone in relief, bolstering Lucifer’s confidence.

‘Hell isn’t pleasant,’ he said. ‘Even for its King.’

Chloe was obviously surprised that he was elaborating on the subject of Hell, but she didn’t say anything, letting him speak.

‘I mean, I don’t have my own Hell Loop’– _anymore_ , he added in his head –‘but my torture was still not that different from the rest of Hell’s residents. I just don’t have a visual representation of it; it’s all in my own head. Mostly it’s lonely.’ He swallowed the lump in his throat, remembering the last one hundred years which had been worse than all the aeons that came before it combined.

‘And then there are the demons,’ he continued. ‘Most are content enough to fight and fuck among themselves and are willing to follow my rules and commands when I give them, but there are always a few rebels. Before I came to LA, it was never a problem. I am the original rebel after all, so I mostly let the demons do what they wanted as long as they didn’t try to kill me or break my no possession rule. But since Dromos… well he had more of a following than I realised. The Mayan was just the tip of the iceberg.

‘I had forgotten what it was like, having to be the King of Hell. Demons only listen to fear and strength… I had to send them a message. Many messages, actually. Years worth of them before things calmed down enough for me to even start to work on a plan to keep them there without my supervision.’

‘It must have been so hard,’ Chloe whispered. 

Lucifer laughed humourlessly. ‘Actually, it was easy. Even though I hate that side of me, it’s so easy to give in to it. The hard part was coming back. Because suddenly I have rules again; and sometimes I have trouble remembering that I have to follow them, that not everybody I meet is deserving of the Devil’s wrath.’

Once he finished his little speech, he held his breath, waiting for Chloe’s reaction; a small part of him still expected her to latch on to the vulnerability he had just shown and use it against him.

‘Thank you for telling me,’ she said, soft and sincere, and Lucifer exhaled. ‘I know you don’t like talking about Hell, but I’m always willing to listen if you ever need it. I’m always willing to help.’

Lucifer relaxed and stroked her cheek again. ‘I know you are. It’s just… difficult for me to ask for it. Needing help is seen as weakness in Hell. And the King can not be seen as weak.’

‘Well, you’re back home now,’ said Chloe, shifting closer so she could snuggle into him, her head resting against his chest. She wrapped an arm around his waist in a loose embrace and Lucifer instinctively copied the movement. ‘And I could never see you as weak. To have spent so long down there and still have joy and kindness left in you, you must be the strongest being in the universe.’

Lucifer disagreed; he felt that Chloe herself was far stronger than he could ever be, but he sensed that voicing this would not be a good idea at the moment so he remained silent, instead opting to place a kiss to the top of Chloe’s head and then burying his nose in her hair.

‘I won’t let anyone send you back there,’ she mumbled around a yawn, her fatigue finally taking over.

Lucifer placed another kiss to her hair and pulled her a little closer. ‘Sleep tight, Detective,’ he whispered. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’


	9. Chapter 9

Chloe groaned as her alarm woke her up from what had been a fitful night’s sleep, full of nightmares of people standing beside her bed, silently watching her. She felt a now little guilty for asking Lucifer to stay, considering the amount of times she woke him up, but she was extremely grateful for his presence. Without it, she doubted she would have even been able to sleep at all.

An annoyed groan sounded from behind her, and an arm reached over her to blindly whack at the alarm a few times before it mercifully fell silent.

‘Why on Earth do you have an alarm set for 7am on a Saturday?’’ grumbled Lucifer, flopping back down onto the bed.

Chloe turned so she could face him. ‘Trixie has karate lessons. I must’ve forgotten to switch the alarm off.’ She scrubbed a little bit of sleep dust from the corner of her eye. ‘I was going to go into work today anyway. I don’t want to leave this sitting for two days, and we still have to look at Nick’s case.’

After talking a couple of moments to try and wake herself up properly, Chloe deemed it as a lost cause and forced her limbs to move regardless. She felt exhausted, both physically and mentally, but that was not going to stop her from going into the station. The sooner they caught this guy, the sooner she could sleep easily again.

Lucifer groaned again as he also got out of bed and ran a hand through the mess of curls on top of his head. Chloe was pretty sure this was the first time she had seen his hair without any product in it; it looked positively adorable.

But the peacefulness of admiring her still sleepy boyfriend soon faded, and the anxiety and exhaustion took hold once more.

She let out another groan.

‘We’d better get ready.’

\----

Lucifer, ever the gentleman, let Chloe shower first. She wished she had the time to have a proper soak – or better yet, have Lucifer join her – but her nerves were buzzing and she was eager to get to the station and actually do something. She was dreading the thought of facing people again, but she just couldn’t sit back and hide while others did all the work.

So after just five minutes, she turned the shower off and quickly dressed into the clothes she had brought into the bathroom with her.

‘The shower’s all yours if you want one,’ she told Lucifer as she walked back into her room, still drying her hair with a towel. ‘I know we have to stop by at Lux anyway so you can get a change of clothes, but if you didn’t want to wait that long…’

Lucifer, who had started to put his suit back on and was just buttoning his shirt up, stilled his hands and looked towards the bathroom door, contemplating. ‘I think I will if you don’t mind,’ he said after a few seconds, and he started to undo the shirt buttons he had just done up.

Realising that Lucifer probably had no qualms about stripping right in front of her (he had quite thoroughly proved that he had no qualms with stripping in front of anybody), Chloe quickly finished with her hair and left to get Lucifer some guest towels from the linen cupboard. She waited until she heard the water running before she re-entered the room to leave them on her bed for him. There was no need to torture herself with temptation that she still wasn’t quite ready to give in to, especially after what had just happened.

Chloe gave an unconscious shiver at the thought and sent her bookcase another wary glance.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the memory of yesterday, she set Lucifer’s towels down, called out to him to let him know they were there, and went downstairs to make breakfast.

She was just finishing the eggs when Lucifer appeared, fresh from his shower. His hair was still curly and his suit was a little rumpled from yesterday, a big contrast to his usual pristine appearance, and Chloe wondered if it was too soon to offer to make a bit of space for him to keep a spare suit in her wardrobe and some of his hair products in her bathroom. If he was insistent that Chloe not be alone in the apartment until her creepy stalker/serial killer was caught, it might be a good idea, she reasoned.

She decided to talk to him about it later. Once she had had an acceptable amount of coffee.

They ate their breakfast mostly in comfortable silence, with little bits of small talk every now and then. It was nice, Chloe thought, just to have someone to be with. It had been so long since she had had that; Pierce was a whirlwind romance that was filled with secrets and a deep down feeling of wrongness, and her and Dan hadn’t had a comfortable breakfast together since long before the separation.

She couldn’t enjoy domestic bliss with Lucifer for too long, however; she was too eager to get working on the case. A new murder meant the possibility for new clues, and she owed it to Nick to do her best to find his killer. He may have been a dung beetle, but he hadn’t deserved to go out like that.

The fact that it was his connection to her that got him killed only strengthened her desire to get him justice.

So, once she and Lucifer had both finished eating, Chloe shoved the plates into the dishwasher and gathered her stuff, ready to leave. It wasn’t until she had her car keys in hand that she realised that Lucifer had driven them to the apartment complex, and they hadn’t gone back for her car; it was still at the precinct.

‘I guess you’re driving,’ she told Lucifer, putting her keys back into her pocket.

Lucifer, who had woken up considerably since his shower, grinned and pulled out his own keys. ‘My pleasure,’ he said, opening the door and gesturing for Chloe to go through first.

Chloe opened her mouth to thank him, but stopped and frowned in confusion at the sight of what appeared to a blank piece of paper taped to the front of her door. Highly suspicious, she plucked Lucifer’s pocket square from his suit pocket and used it to cover her hand as she pulled the paper off the door.

Lucifer made a grab for the paper, but Chloe snatched it away from him before he could touch it. ‘Don’t get fingerprints on it,’ she told him, voice shaking slightly. She knew logically that that the paper could just be an innocent note from a neighbour, but considering everything that had happened recently, she doubted it.

Slowly, she turned the paper over, and her stomached dropped at the sight of the slasher style font typed words on the other side. The note was short, but it was enough to fill Chloe with even more dread than before.

_I guess you can’t save everybody._

\----

The appearance of the note meant that another round with the apartment complex’s security camera was required, but at least this time they only had a few hours’ worth of footage to go through, rather than a couple of weeks’ worth. It didn’t take Chloe and Lucifer too long to go through it and discover that the only person who passed through the entrance was Casey, who left at 8pm and came home at about 2am. Nothing out of the ordinary considering her occupation.

‘They must have come in another way,’ grumbled Chloe as she and Lucifer made their way to her desk at the precinct. The apartment complex was pretty secure, but it still wouldn’t be too difficult to sneak past the one camera it had.

There was a piece of paper waiting for Chloe on her desk and she froze, dread filling her, before she realised that it was just a report from the forensics team. Simmons, the weekend forensic analyst, really lacked Ella’s personal touch.

Chloe quickly read the report and let out another groan. There was no DNA or fingerprints on the note at all. And the paper and computer ink were all very generic, making it impossible to trace.

‘Why me?’ asked Chloe, putting down the report and slumping into her chair. ‘Why are they doing this? Is it just to scare me? Or is it some sort of sick game?’

‘I would have thought it was obvious,’ said Lucifer, voice rough. He had been very quiet since they had found the note, but Chloe knew why; while breakfast had been a pleasant distraction, the note had brought him back to reality and his anger had returned. ‘He’s punishing you.’

Chloe opened and closed her mouth a few times. ‘Punishing me?’ she asked, voice a tad squeakier than intended.

Lucifer nodded. ‘If there’s one thing I know, it’s punishment, and this is practically textbook definition. The murders, the humiliation, and now the taunting; classic punishment techniques. And judging by the message you received this morning, I would say that it is for failing to prevent a death that was linked to one of your cases.’

‘You can’t save everyone,’ Chloe whispered, quoting the message. She couldn’t deny that Lucifer’s theory made sense. It was not a comforting thought, but it did at least give them a lead to go on. She turned on her computer, waited the agonisingly long seconds for it to load, and then opened an Excel spreadsheet. She created a template for three lists; one for unsolved murders, one for people who had died in relation to her cases, and one for people she had arrested who had then died in prison. It would take a while to go through her old cases and compile the lists, but she was confident she could do it in between working Nick’s case. She would just have to delegate more tasks to Dan than originally intended.

Still, there were a few names that she didn’t need any help in remembering. Four in fact, though these people’s deaths had related to herself rather than her cases specifically. Still, she typed them into the document, giving them a separate list all of their own.

_William Kinley_

_Marcus Pierce_

_Charlotte Richards_

_Malcolm Graham_

Chloe stared at the names for a long moment as old feelings of pain, anger and grief washed over her before she saved the document and closed it down. She would start work on Nick’s case first, she decided; if the killer left evidence behind this time, then she may not even have to spend days going through her old cases for possible suspects. She asked a nearby uni to bring her the Nick Hofmeister casefile and was relieved when the young man only nodded professionally and didn’t give her any pitying or lecherous looks.

‘Poor Dung Beetle,’ said Lucifer, looking through the summary that Dan had given Chloe the day before. He seemed to have gotten his anger under control again and was no longer quietly seething. ‘He was actually starting to turn his life around these last few years.’

Chloe nodded sadly. ‘Yeah, he was.’

A couple of minutes later, the uni returned with a very thick folder. Part of Chloe was optimistic at the sight – a thick folder meant lots of leads and/or evidence, but the other, exhausted part of her inwardly groaned at the thought of reading through it all.

Dan’s short summary had been very misleading.

Sorting through the file, Chloe quickly found out that most of the paperwork was the beginnings of research on people who Nick may have pissed off enough to want him dead: celebrities whose careers or marriages were destroyed due to pictures Nick had taken. It was quite the change from the previous two victims who had been reasonably well liked.

Unfortunately, there was not much in the way of actual evidence. Nick had been killed where he was found, the slash in his throat was consistent of a right-handed person, and there was no DNA or prints at the scene. No witnesses had come forward either, but there was still hope on that front at least. Sometimes people took a while to come forward, thinking whatever they saw unimportant until hearing about the crime days later.

Chloe let out a tired sigh and then got to work.

\----

Chloe and Lucifer were about halfway through going through Nick’s phone records when Lieutenant Diaz called. ‘So, a threatening note, huh?’ was the first thing she said when Chloe answered the call.

Chloe winced and sent a glare to Ella’s lab where Simmons was no doubt hiding. Ella wouldn’t have snitched on her, she thought, even though she deep down knew that Simmons was only following protocol.

‘I received it this morning,’ she told the lieutenant; there was no point hiding it now. ‘It was stuck to my door. Simmons has been over it and found nothing and Lucifer and I have just gone through the security tapes for the building.’ Again. ‘Nothing suspicious.’

Diaz made a noise that was somehow both impressed and disappointed.

‘I don’t like this Decker. You’re too close to the case, and I don’t like the thought of my top detective being targeted.’

‘Believe me, I don’t like it either,’ said Chloe. ‘But at this point, I don’t think I would be any safer not working the case than I am working it, so if you are about to suggest I take a step back from it, I would like to respectfully decline.’

‘I suppose you’re right,’ said Lieutenant Diaz after a long pause, though Chloe suspected her agreement may have had more to do with Lucifer’s promise of vacation time than the very reasonable points Chloe had made. ‘But if you get another note, or if anything new happens, you had better tell me yourself straight away. Got it?’

‘Yes, Ma’am,’ Chloe nodded.

Diaz ended the call and Chloe let out a long breath.

‘Did she try and order us off the case?’ asked Lucifer.

Chloe shook her head. ‘Nearly, but I guess she really wants that vacation time.’

There was an awkward stretch of silence as they both contemplated whether Chloe was right in saying that she was no safer off the case than on. Chloe had a brief mental image of Lucifer whisking her away to the other side of the planet for her own vacation until the LAPD had caught whoever was trying to “punish” her, but she quickly pushed it away. She was not going to run.

Besides, who knew how long it would take to catch this guy? So far he had barely left a trace of evidence, and she couldn’t stay away forever, no matter how nice a holiday with Lucifer sounded.

‘Well, back to work, I guess,’ said Lucifer, breaking the silence.

Chloe let out another long breath and turned back to Nick’s phone records that were still on her computer screen.

‘Back to work.’


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I have officially caught up to where I am at writing wise, and since I've only got a couple of chapters to go, I'm going to wait until I have finished writing them until I update again, so it may be a couple of weeks.

Chloe and Lucifer made significant progress on Chloe’s lists over the next few days. As Chloe looked up her old cases and added names, Lucifer researched the family and friends of said names, and determined if any of them had the means and motive to be punishing Chloe for their loved one’s demise. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about Nick’s case. Chloe was not surprised to find that none of the people they interviewed seemed to have had anything to do with Nick’s death, but she had to be thorough.

So, all in all, it had been a very busy few days with mixed results and by Thursday night, Chloe was beyond exhausted. She crawled into her bed at 10pm (after her nightly check of her room for cameras) and sleep claimed her instantly. Unfortunately, it didn’t claim her for long, as less than an hour later, she was waking up in a cold sweat from yet another nightmare.

After calming herself down, Chloe eyed her phone, contemplating calling Lucifer and asking him to come over. She knew he would if she asked – she had practically had to drag him to Lux herself to convince him to take a day off from keeping her company and attend to his business that he still very much had to run. The sound of a cupboard opening downstairs and the distinctive thud of a bottle being placed on the counter too hard changed her mind, however. She wasn’t alone; Maze was with her. There was no need to bother Lucifer when he had done so much for her already.

So she took a calming breath, closed her eyes, and tried to get back to sleep.

And then laid there for half an hour before she finally gave up and got out of bed. Maybe if she laid down on the couch in front of the TV, her mind would finally let her body give in to its exhaustion.

Maze raised an eyebrow at the sight of Chloe, still wrapped in her blanket and holding a pillow, trudging down the stairs, but made no comment.

Once Chloe was as comfortable as she was going to get on the couch, she turned on Netflix and loaded up her favourite sitcom that she had rewatched many many times, hoping the familiarity would lull her to sleep. It kind of worked; she found herself dozing on and off for the next few hours, until she finally fell into a proper sleep at about 3am.

A few hours later, she awoke to the sound of Maze shuffling around the place, collecting random things (mostly knives) and putting them into a bag. ‘Got a bounty,’ she said once she noticed that Chloe was awake. ‘In Vegas. It’ll probably take the whole weekend, so Lucifer will have to be on Decker Detail.’

Chloe nodded as she let out a yawn. She reluctantly untangled herself from her blanket and slowly made her way over to the kitchen to make some breakfast.

And that’s when she noticed the time.

She swore loudly. She had totally forgotten to set an alarm on her phone, not being able to hear her bedside alarm from the couch. ‘Why didn’t you wake me?’ she asked Maze irritably as she abandoned her plans for breakfast and grabbed a piece of fruit instead. ‘I’m going to be late for work.’

Maze merely shrugged and swung her bag over her shoulder. At Chloe’s glare, she rolled her eyes. ‘I was going to wake you up soon,’ she defended herself.

Chloe decided to let her off. Truth be told, she was kind of grateful for that extra hour sleep. But now she really had to get a move on if she wanted to make it to the precinct before Lucifer got too worried and sent out a search party. She sent him a quick text and then practically ran to her bedroom to get dressed.

Ten minutes later, she was grabbing her keys and joining an impatient Maze at the door. ‘Thanks for waiting,’ said Chloe as she locked the door behind them.

Maze shrugged again. ‘I wouldn’t be doing a good job at protecting you if I left you here alone, would I?’

Chloe gave her a grateful smile and the pair made their way to the car park, briefly stopping to pick up the mail, which Chloe shoved in her bag to look through later.

‘Good luck with your bounty,’ Chloe told Maze as they parted to each go to their separate vehicles (Chloe to her cruiser and Maze to her motorcycle).

‘I won’t need it,’ said Maze.

Chloe shook her head and chuckled softly. ‘I’m sure you won’t.’ Maze was good at what she did, be it bounty hunting or protecting her friends. A point well proved by the fact that she didn’t even put on her helmet until Chloe was in her car and reversing out of the car park, safe for now.

\----

Chloe got lucky with traffic and managed to get to work only 45 minutes late, something which the lieutenant thankfully didn’t notice. Lucifer did, though. Chloe was glad she had the foresight to send him that text earlier; if the look of relief on his face was anything to go by, he really would have sent out that search party.

‘Hey, sorry, I’m late,’ she said as she put her things behind her desk and sat down in her chair. ‘I slept in.’

‘No need to apologise,’ said Lucifer with a smile that was just a little too bright to be totally genuine. ‘I got your text. And a well-rested Detective is a good Detective. Not that you aren’t always good, of course.’

Chloe nodded, even if she didn’t particularly feel “well rested”, and reached for her mail, hoping to quickly go through it before getting back to the lists she and Lucifer had been working on. But before she could even pick up the first envelope, Dan approached her desk, looking sad.

‘There’s been another murder, hasn’t there?’ Chloe asked him, straightening back up again.

Dan shook his head. ‘There’s been two.’

\----

Their two newest victims were in a park in Pasadena; each was propped up on either side of a tree. The crime scene was busy with forensics, unis and gawking spectators when Chloe and Lucifer arrived, but they soon made their way through; people seemed to part for them. Chloe didn’t fail to notice that they all had the same sombre look on their face. And when she finally made it to the bodies, she saw why.

The two men - if you could even call them that – looked like they were barely out of their teens. Chloe’s heart dropped and she had to turn away to hide the tears that were threatening to spill. Murders of young people always hit her hard, and this one doubly so. Not just because it was two murders, but because Chloe knew that they had been murdered because of _her_ \- as punishment for something _she_ did.

Lucifer’s comforting hand on her shoulder was the thing that pulled her out of her guilt spiral; knowing that she wasn’t doing this alone gave her the strength she needed to wipe her tears away and turn back around. She had a job to do, and she owed it to these two men – and the other victims before them – to find this killer.

‘Please tell me we have something this time,’ Chloe said to Ella as she approached the bodies to examine them properly. They both had slit throats and numbers carved into their foreheads (a four and a five), but there seemed to be more blood underneath one than the other.

‘Nothing yet,’ said Ella sadly, ‘but we do have a slight change in pattern. See this guy?’ She pointed to the man with the number four carved into his head – the one with the least amount of blood around him. ‘This guy was killed somewhere else. And earlier too. At least an hour I’d say, but I couldn’t tell you for certain yet.’

Chloe nodded, a small bubble of hope welling up inside her. A change in pattern was good, it meant the chance to learn something new. ‘Any IDs yet?’ she asked, looking over each of the young men’s faces, trying to place which case she knew them from.

Ella nodded, but it was Lucifer who answered the question. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong Miss Lopez,’ he said, ‘but I believe these are the two unfortunate students who Professor Carlisle kidnapped for his deranged experiment.’ He pointed to the one with the “4” on his head. ‘Victim number four, here, was quite the skilled runner, I believe.’

Chloe and Ella took another closer look at the man’s face. ‘Oh, shoot! You’re right!’ said Ella.

‘So, did we have names, Ella?’ asked Chloe, trying not to let her guilt and distress show on her face.

‘Oh, right, names. Helpful. So, they both had their wallets on them, so we have their driver’s licences. Victim number four is Leon Klem, and victim number five is Benji Tibi. Both 22 years old.’

Chloe winced at the reminder of their age but soldiered on.

‘I don’t suppose the killer left any clues for us?’

Ella shook her head. ‘Haven’t found anything yet, but we’ll keep looking.’

Chloe tried not to be too disappointed. ‘Well maybe we’ll have more luck if we can find where Leon was killed. We’ll start at his home address. You said you had his driver’s licence.’

Ella nodded and pointed to one of the unis.

Chloe gave the two young victims one more guilty look before making her way over to the uni. Other victims had been targeted at their homes at first, so she hoped that that meant that Leon had been too. And maybe, just maybe, she would find some proper evidence, and this would all be over.

Somehow, she doubted things would be that simple. 

\----

Chloe was right, things weren’t that simple.

While Leon had indeed been murdered in his home – the huge pile of blood on his bed proved that – forensics had not found any new evidence. All the fingerprints and DNA they had found had belonged to either Leon himself or his girlfriend (who had an alibi) and none of his neighbours had noticed anything out of the ordinary.

‘Why kill him straight away instead of drugging him like the others?’ Chloe asked. She was in the lab with Ella and Lucifer, having just gotten the tox results from the coroner. While Benji had had rohypnol in his system, Leon had not.

‘Maybe his supply dried up?’ said Lucifer.

‘Maybe,’ said Ella. ‘Or maybe it was just convenience. Maybe they just didn’t want to risk the drug wearing off before they got the other victim ready. He couldn’t really leave one there while going to get the other; someone could have found the first body while he was away. Plus, Leon was hella fit. Not the sorta guy I’d like to take on in a fight to the death.’

Chloe nodded. ‘Leon was young and athletic, not an easy target. And if he didn’t have a daily routine to exploit like Wade did… maybe it was just easier to cut his throat while he slept.’

Lucifer and Ella nodded, agreeing.

Realising there was nothing really left to discuss with Ella, Chloe thanked her and motioned for Lucifer to follow her to her desk. Dan was out doing the last of the interviews for the day, and there were other people looking through traffic cam footage, so that meant that Chloe and Lucifer would be able to finish the lists they were working on. They only had a dozen or so cases to go through now, and Lucifer had already scratched off a bunch of suspects who had alibis.

Looking at the lists, Chloe couldn’t help but notice that the number of names had drastically decreased after Lucifer started working with her. They hadn’t disappeared completely; there were still a few people who had died before they’d been able to catch the killer, and there was one person who had died in prison – plus Perry Smith who had been killed by the mob… but her “unsolved murders” list had been practically untouched for the last 20 cases or so.

She glanced over at Lucifer, who had somehow managed to steal one of Dan’s puddings on the short walk from Ella’s lab to Chloe’s desk, and smiled fondly.

‘What?’ he asked around a spoonful of pudding.

Chloe just shook her head. ‘Nothing, just… thank you.’

Lucifer still looked confused but smiled back at her all the same before shoving another spoonful of pudding in his mouth.

Chloe turned back to her lists, her smile falling. The names may have been tampering off now, but there still a lot on the page. More than Chloe had expected when starting this project. And with every person on her list, came multiple people who cared about that person and who may want revenge for their loss. She let out a sigh before bringing up the case file she was up to. If she could finish going through the last few files that day, then she could start helping Lucifer with the suspect list, and then maybe, they might be able to make some proper progress. Too many people had died already, and Chloe was not just going to wait until this sicko made a mistake in his twisted game.

No one else was going to die because of her.

\----

An hour later, Chloe had finally finished going through all her cases as a detective up to Wade Timberton’s. She leaned back and stretched her arms out wide, glad to have at least that part over with. An annoying voice at the back of her mind reminded her that that had been the easy part, but she ignored it, wanting to bask in this small victory for at least a few minutes.

She stopped mid-stretch as her eyes caught sight of the time on her computer screen. Her shift had finished five minutes ago, not that Chloe was any stranger to overtime. She glanced over at Lucifer, who was currently on the phone to one of his less-than-legal contacts who was looking into any signs of anyone starting up the Sinnnerman network again. Chloe didn’t think it was too likely that someone was punishing her for her role in Cain's demise, but it was still a rock that had to be checked under; from what little Chloe had seen, Cain’s men didn’t just fear him, they were fiercely loyal as well.

She decided to get her things together while she waited for him to finish up, and suddenly remembered that she hadn’t checked her mail yet. Opening her desk drawer, she pulled out the small pile of envelopes, much more than usual. It must have been bill day.

Sure enough, the first two envelopes in the piles were bills. The next one was just a generic school notice, but the one after that made Chloe pause. It was just a plain white envelope – like the ones birthday cards came with – but the odd thing about it was that it was completely blank. No name or address, nothing.

Her detective instincts kicking in and her anxiety rising, Chloe grabbed a pair of disposable gloves from her desk and put them on. ‘Please don’t be anything creepy’, she muttered under breath. ‘Please don’t be anything creepy.’

She carefully pulled out the single piece of paper that was in the envelope and almost dropped it when she saw what it was.

It was a photo of Lucifer – one she recognised from his Instagram account – but it was what was painted over the top that made Chloe's blood run cold. In red paint, someone had written the number six over Lucifer's smiling face.

It was obvious that this was from their serial killer, and it was equally obvious what message they were sending.

Lucifer was their next target.

Lucifer finished his phone call, but Chloe barely noticed. ‘Well according to Derek, there has been no mention of any Sinnerman resurrections in the criminal underworld of LA,’ he said happily, but stopped when he noticed that Chloe wasn’t listening. ‘Detective? Are you okay?’

With shaky hands, Chloe turned the paper around to show him the photo.

Lucifer opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times. ‘We should probably show this to Ella,’ he finally said.

Chloe nodded numbly, and made to stand but Lucifer’s hand on hers made her pause. ‘I will be fine, Detective,’ he said with a confidence that Chloe couldn’t hope to have right now. ‘I’m more than a match for this guy. He may be good, but I’m the Devil.’

That was true, and Chloe knew how capable he was in a fight… but this guy made a point of not needing to fight his victims. And with Lucifer being vulnerable around her… well, no amount of reassuring words would quell the fear that was bubbling up inside her.

‘Let’s get this to Ella,’ said Chloe, swallowing the lump in her throat. ‘Maybe they left fingerprints this time.’ She could tell by the look in Lucifer’s eyes that he knew his words had not helped her, and Chloe felt a little stab of guilt at not being able to appreciate his effort, but there wasn’t much she could do about that. Any false bravado right now would just feel like lying.

After a moment, Lucifer nodded and let go of her hand, leaning back so she could stand. Chloe took a few more seconds to compose herself before rising and leading the way to Ella's lab. She was grateful that she didn’t have to worry about picking Trixie up; she wasn’t leaving the building until the paper and envelope in her hand had been scoured over for any minuscule scrap of evidence that might be on it.

She wasn’t leaving until she knew that one way or another Lucifer would be safe.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this has taken me way longer to write than expected. I'm not even up to the epilogue yet. But, I have split the climax into two chapters, so I can at least give you an update. I should also have an update for you next week, but then there may be another break before the epilogue.
> 
> Thank you for being patient with me.
> 
> Also, just a warning, there is a small bit of gore in the chapter.

Chloe was not surprised when, an hour later, Ella had confirmed that the envelope and paper were completely clean of fingerprints other than Chloe’s. The paint was also a dead end as it was a generic kids brand that probably had monthly sales in the hundreds, and while they now had a very small sample of the killer’s handwriting, there was nothing to match it to. Chloe had asked Lucifer about the photo that had been used, but with his Instagram follower count in the thousands, that avenue was a lost cause too.

All in all, they had nothing. Even the warning that Lucifer would be the next victim could have been a red herring, though Chloe doubted it. And with little-to-no hope of catching their killer that night, there was only one way left to keep Lucifer safe... and Chloe knew he wasn't going to like it.

‘Well, I called the lieutenant?’ said Lucifer, breaking Chloe out of her thoughts. She startled a little but recovered quickly. ‘She wanted us both off the case, but I managed to convince her to change her mind. Are you okay, Detective?’

Chloe wiped away the tear that she only just realised was running down her cheek.

‘Thank you, Lucifer,’ she told him, heartfelt. ‘It means a lot, it really does.’ Another tear fell from her eyelashes and Lucifer stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace.

‘Everything will be okay,’ he soothed, rubbing his hand over her back.

‘I don’t want you to die,’ Chloe sobbed into his chest, too tired to care that they were in the middle of the precinct where anyone could witness her vulnerability.

‘I won’t,’ said Lucifer.

Chloe nodded and pulled back, her tears slowing. ‘I know you won’t. Because I’m not going to let it happen. So, until we catch this guy, I’m going to keep my distance. He can only kill you when I’m near you, so the obvious solution is to not be near you.’

‘Detective…’ Lucifer went to protest, just like Chloe knew he would, but she cut him off.

‘I know you’re worried about me, but right now, you are in a lot more danger than I am.’

‘We don’t know that for sure,’ said Lucifer, desperation starting to creep into his voice. ‘For all we know, this just might be a ruse – just something to make you panic.’

‘I’m not willing to take that risk!’

Lucifer seemed a little stunned at her outburst, and Chloe took a breath to calm herself. ‘I can’t risk it, Lucifer,’ she said, softly. ‘You’ve been to Hell for me too many times already… I’m not going to let this guy send you back there, not when there’s one very easy way to stop it from happening. I don’t want to be away from you, believe me I don’t, but if it’s all I can do to keep you safe, then I will. Without me there to make you vulnerable, this guy won’t stand a chance against you.’

Lucifer was silent, trying to think of a counterargument, so Chloe seized her chance. She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss. ‘Stay safe,’ she said, before turning and walking towards the elevator. She didn’t dare turn back, knowing that if Lucifer saw her face and saw how scared she was, he would never let her go.

\----

It wasn’t until Chloe had pulled into her usual parking spot at her apartment that she remembered that Maze had gone to Vegas for the weekend, meaning she would be alone. And alone was something that Chloe really didn’t want to be right now. She may have been right in saying that Lucifer was in more danger than her, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew she was still a target.

She contemplated calling Maze and asking her to come back, but even if she did, Maze was still a few hours away, and there was no way Chloe was spending even that amount of time alone in an apartment that this guy had already proved capable of breaking into. She mentally went through the list of places she could stay, wincing when the first place she thought of was Lux, the one place she definitely couldn’t go. She thought about Dan’s place, but he had Trixie and Chloe wasn’t willing to risk even the smallest chance of getting her caught in the middle of all this. Linda had Charlie, and Ella was probably still at work. She could call her, but if Lucifer was still there too and found out that Maze had left, he would probably come and get her, regardless of the danger it put him in.

So that left Chloe’s mother’s place. Not the best choice, but it was still better than being alone.

Chloe took a big breath and got out of her car, making sure to glance over all the corners of the parking lot before making her way to her apartment. She just needed to pack a bag, and then she would be straight out of there. In and out in ten minutes.

She could do this.

She went to rest her hand against her gun – just in case - but when she realised how much she was shaking, she pulled it back a little.

Chloe made to her front door without incident, but it didn’t do much to reassure her. Ten minutes, she told herself again, trying to control her shaking fingers as fought with the keys on her key-ring, trying to find the one for the front door.

‘Fuck,’ she muttered as she dropped the keys, losing her place just as she had found the right one.

She bent down to pick them up, but another hand beat her to it. Chloe’s back snapped upright, and she backed up a few paces. Her hand, now completely steady, went to her gun, her police training kicking in.

‘Woah, sorry,’ said her neighbour, Doug, putting his hands up in front him; Chloe keys were gripped in one. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. You just looked like you needed some help.’

Chloe took a few calming breaths and slowly moved her hand away from her gun. ‘No, I’m sorry. I… I’m just a little jumpy.’

Doug lowered his hands now that the danger of getting shot had passed. ‘Totally understandable,’ he said. ‘I should’ve said something first; I wasn’t thinking.’ He held out her keys to her and Chloe gave him a nod of thanks as she took them.

‘Is everything all right?’ asked Doug after an awkward pause, and it was only then that Chloe realised that she had started shaking again. ‘Has there been another break in?’

Chloe shook her head. ‘No, no break in.’

‘Oh. Good.’ There was another pause. ‘A fight with your boyfriend?’ he asked, a tad awkwardly.

At the mention of Lucifer, the photo she had received came rushing to the forefront of her mind – the red “6” taunting her.

‘Shit,’ said Doug, bringing Chloe back to the present. He was looking even more awkward now… and a little blurry. ‘Don’t cry. I’m sorry I brought it up.’

Chloe wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and the blurriness left along with her tears.

‘How about we get you inside?’ suggested Doug, gesturing to her door.

Chloe nodded and, after a few tries, managed to unlock the door. Once it was open, Doug gently took her shoulders and guided her to her couch. ‘You wait there, I’ll get you some water. Unless you want something stronger?’

Chloe shook her head. ‘Water’s fine,’ she croaked out, embarrassed that the breakdown that had been a long time coming was being witnessed by her neighbour. At least he was being nice about it, she supposed.

Doug soon returned with a glass of water and a box of tissues. He was probably scared that Chloe was going to start crying again, but to be fair, those fears weren’t totally irrational; she was still feeling very teary.

‘Did... did you want to talk about?’ asked Doug, sitting down on the other side of the couch, a respectful distance away but still within consoling reach.

Chloe sniffed and took a long drink of water to wet her dry throat. ‘It’s just this case I’m on,’ she explained.

‘The break in?’

Chloe nodded. ‘It’s gotten a bit too personal. I’ll be fine, though,’ she reassured him, not wanting him to feel awkward, or worse, ask any more questions. ‘I’m gonna go stay with family for a while.’ She drank the rest of the water and wiped her eyes again. ‘Just got to pack a bag and then this horrible day will be all behind me.’

Doug still look a bit awkward but accepted her dismissal of the topic. ‘Okay, if you’re sure. Did you want me to stay while you pack?’

Chloe hesitated. She didn’t want to be alone, even for only five minutes, but she didn’t really know Doug all too well. They had had a few neighbourly chats and waved to each other of they crossed paths in the street, but that was about it. Now that she had calmed down a bit, she was actually feeling more nervous having a near-stranger in her home than she was when she thought she would be in the apartment by herself.

‘No, it’s okay,’ she told him, as politely as possible. ‘I’ll be fine. It’ll only take a few minutes and then I’ll be gone. Thank you though.’ She stood up, ready to show him to the door, but was hit by a sudden dizzy spell; she would have probably fallen flat on the floor if it hadn’t been for Doug taking her shoulders again and guiding her back to the couch.

‘Steady now,’ he said, his voice sounding a bit muffled to her ears.

She slowly turned her head to face him, squinting as his features became blurry. ‘I... I don’t...’ She struggled to get her words out, her head swimming. Through the blurriness, she saw Doug smile.

_Oh..._

‘You,’ was all she managed to say before the fog in her head became too much and she lost consciousness.

\----

When Chloe woke up, the first thing she noticed was that she felt like shit. The second thing she noticed was that she couldn’t move. Tentatively opening her eyes, she saw that she was in a dimly lit room that looked a little similar to her apartment. Looking down, she saw that her wrists were taped to the arms of the chair with what looked like duct tape, and her ankles were similarly taped to the chair legs. Beneath the chair was a large tarp, which did not bode well for Chloe’s immediate future.

‘I was beginning to worry I had given you too much,’ came a voice from Chloe’s right, and she slowly turned to face the speaker, hating how groggy she still felt. After a few seconds and a bit of squinting, Doug’s face finally swam into view and everything came crashing back. The photo, coming home alone, Doug getting her a glass of water which she had stupidly drunk.

Chloe tried to speak but suddenly realised that her mouth was also taped over, and all that came out was a confused mumble.

Nevertheless, Doug seemed to know what she was trying to say. ‘I suppose you are wondering why?’ he sneered. Gone was the kind neighbour that used to wave at Chloe in the parking lot, now there was nothing but hate in his eyes. ‘I bet you don’t even remember my brother, Dylan. Dylan Sinclair. Ringing any bells?’

Chloe tried to think, but it was hard when it still felt like her brain was made of cotton wool. When it became obvious that she could not remember, Doug rested his hands, which Chloe only now realised were gloved, on her taped wrists and leaned into her space, his eyes narrowed in anger. Chloe resisted the urge to lean away.

‘Of course you don’t,’ he spat. ‘Well, let me remind you.’ He leaned back out of her space but remained crouched in front of her, hands still on her wrists. ‘My brother was a good kid, so when he overheard a man placing a hit on someone, naturally his first thought was to tell the police. It turned out that that man had been Anthony Trelawney.’

Chloe’s eyes must have showed her recognition of the name, because Doug smiled triumphantly. ‘Yes, that’s right. The head honcho of the Trelawney crime family. Remembering now, detective?’ The way he said “detective” was like nails on a chalkboard to Chloe’s ears. Doug said it like it was an insult – the exact opposite of how Lucifer said it. ‘Of course, you weren’t a detective back then, were you?’ Doug continued. ‘You were just a normal cop.’

Chloe’s eyes widened as she finally remembered the case Doug was referring to. His brother had been one of their main witnesses for the trial, and naturally had been given protection detail. It had been Chloe and her partner, Morris, who had overseen that detail. And they had failed. Dylan had been shot in a drive by just outside the safehouse, with Morris also being fatally hit. Chloe had been hit in the arm but had survived the ordeal and had been the one to identify the car as belonging to Trelawney’s daughter. Both father and daughter had eventually been sentenced, which had been enough to set the family’s organisation back for a few months, but not indefinitely.

Chloe closed her eyes as a wave of shame washed over her. Both for her past failure and her present one; she had only been looking into her old cases as a detective, not as a beat cop. She had wasted so much time.

‘Do you remember now?’ asked Doug callously. Chloe nodded.

‘Good. Because I want you to know exactly why I am doing this. You got my brother killed, and yet you made detective less than a year later. You should have been punished, not rewarded. And I have been planning for years to right that wrong.’ He suddenly stood up and turned to walk over to a table behind him. The table looked like a normal kitchen table, and Chloe suddenly realised that she was in Doug’s own apartment.

On the table was Chloe’s gun that he must have taken off her when she was unconscious, and for a moment, Chloe thought he was going to pick it up, but instead, he reached behind it and picked up a small knife.

She couldn’t decide if this was better or worse.

Doug turned back towards her and leaned back against the table, twirling the knife in his hands. ‘It has been satisfying watching you suffer,’ he said musingly. ‘And you can’t deny, releasing that video was a stroke of genius. It wasn’t part of my original plan; the cameras were simply a way of keeping tabs on you – seeing the fruits of my labour, if you will – but it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.’

Chloe glared at him, but all it did was make him smirk, looking even more smug than before.

‘Speaking of cameras…’ He pulled forward a laptop which Chloe had not noticed on the table before, too distracted by the weapons, and opened it. He tapped the keyboard a few times and the screen came to life, showing a view of Chloe’s apartment. ‘I took the liberty of setting up another one while you were unconscious. I wouldn’t want you to miss your final punishment.’

Dread formed in the pit Chloe’s stomach. What was he planning?

Doug stepped forward into her space again and waved something in front of her face; it was her phone. On the screen was an already written but yet to be sent message in her and Lucifer’s text chain.

_Can you come over? I thought I heard something outside._

And suddenly the video on the laptop made sense. Doug was going to lure Lucifer to her apartment, presumably to kill him while she watched.

And with Chloe only next door, she was close enough for it to be possible.

Doug smiled victoriously as Chloe's eyes widened in fear. He pulled the phone away and tapped at it once, sending the message.

Two seconds later the phone started buzzing with an incoming call.

‘Oh, that was quick,’ said Doug, a touch of manic glee in his voice. ‘This is going to be even easier than I thought.’ He hit to decline button and set the phone down, ignoring it as it started buzzing again.

He stalked towards Chloe and knelt on the floor in front of her. ‘He’ll come to check on you soon, I’m sure,’ he said. ‘But in the meantime…’ He held up the knife and Chloe’s eyes couldn’t help but follow it as he slowly brought it above her eye-line. She tried to pull away as she felt the tip of the blade press against her forehead, but Doug’s other hand gripped the back of her head tightly, keeping her in place.

‘I usually leave this bit until last,’ he said, adding a small amount of pressure on the blade. Chloe screwed her eyes shut in preparation of the pain that was to come. ‘But for you, I think I will make an exception.’

The blade dug in properly and Chloe screamed through the tape as pain erupted in her forehead. She uselessly trying to kick her legs out at her attacker but the tape held her back. She didn’t know if the knife was actually scraping her skull or not, but it sure as hell felt like it was.

After what felt like eternity, the pressure disappeared and the pain eased a minuscule amount, but a second later it was back, as the blade drew another line down her forehead. Despite the pain, Chloe was all too aware that Doug had carved the number 7, leaving no doubt in her mind that he intended to follow through on his threat of Lucifer being his sixth victim.

‘Detective?!’

The sound of Lucifer’s voice managed to ground Chloe and she forced herself to open her eyes. She had hoped to see him directly in front of her, maybe giving Doug a well-earned taste of Hell, but he was nowhere to be seen. She hadn’t imagined him, had she?

‘Maze?!’ came Lucifer’s questioning shout, and Chloe squinted through the blood that was trickling down her face to see that he wasn’t in Doug’s apartment at all; he was in hers. She could see him through the video link on Doug’s laptop, frantically searching her apartment for her.

Doug looked a bit startled by Lucifer’s quick arrival – far too quick to have driven all the way from Lux - but soon recovered. ‘Well it seems that I’m not your only stalker,’ he said turning to Chloe.

Chloe screamed through the tape, now not only out of pain, but out of anger too. She struggled against her bonds but to no avail. Doug watched her squirm for a moment, a look of perverted satisfaction on his face, and then moved towards her, knife still in his hand. Chloe prepared herself for another wave of pain, but it didn’t come, instead, Doug walked straight past her. The sound of water running told her that he was at his sink. When he returned to her line of sight, he showed her the now clean knife and then pocketed it. He gave her a smile and a wave and then left his apartment.

The sound of the door closing felt like a death sentence.


	12. Chapter 12

In the last hour, Lucifer had paced around his penthouse so many times he was surprised he hadn’t worn the floor down. When Chloe had first left the precinct, he had stayed. Though it killed him not to follow her, he knew that she was right; it was safer for both of them if he stayed away. So instead of racing after her like every cell in his body was screaming at him to do, he had sent a quick text to Maze to update her on the situation (he got no reply but that was normal for Maze) and had then retreated to Lux, making sure to make himself very visible before going up to his penthouse.

It didn’t hurt to dangle the bait a little, did it?

And then he had waited for Mr. Killer to show up, knowing that no matter how smart this guy was, he would be no match for an invulnerable devil.

And then he had kept on waiting, eventually adding the pacing to the mix. He was just about to accept that the killer had no plans on targeting him that night when his phone dinged with an incoming text.

‘That would be Maze at last,’ he mumbled to himself.

It wasn’t Maze; it was Chloe.

_Can you come over? I thought I heard something outside._

The text didn’t sound very urgent, but he knew his Detective, and she wouldn’t be asking him to come over because of something so trivial unless she was really concerned about it. He was a bit surprised she was asking for his assistance anyway, after everything she had said at the precinct.

And where the hell was Maze? She should have been checking out any suspicious noises.

It took Lucifer less than two seconds to hit the call button. He needed answers.

After, the phone rang for a couple of rings, it went to voicemail, and Lucifer felt panic starting to bubble up within him.

Why wasn’t she answering?

He tried calling again but it just went to voicemail again. Something was definitely wrong.

Lucifer didn’t even consider driving, he just unfurled his wings and, a few seconds later, he was staring at Chloe’s front door. He didn’t bother knocking, instead he just grabbed the handle, waited the two seconds it took for the lock to yield to his will, and strolled in, only remembering to unfurl his wings when he realised that he couldn’t fit through the doorway with them out.

‘Detective!?’ he called, his eyes scanning the room. There didn’t seem to be any sign of a disturbance… but there was no sign of Chloe either. ‘Maze!?’

When he received no answer from either of them, he truly began to panic. He tried calling Chloe’s phone again but there was still no answer.

A quick search of the apartment revealed nothing, and Lucifer was contemplating calling the station (or going to get that hellhound) when a knock on the door diverted his attention. He turned to see one of Chloe’s neighbours (Doug, wasn’t it?) sheepishly poking their head through the already open doorway.

‘Is everything all right?’ asked Doug. ‘I, uh, heard shouting and what with the break in the other week and all… I thought I had better check.’

At first, Lucifer was annoyed at the interruption, his mind already counting the seconds he was wasting listening to this man when he should be looking for Chloe, but then he realised that he had a possible witness in front of him. ‘Doug!’ he shouted, striding towards the man and pulling him into the apartment. Doug looked a little startled but allowed himself to be led inside. ‘Did you hear anything just now, before you heard me? Any other shouting, or a sound of a struggle, perhaps?’

Doug shook his head. ‘No. Why? Has something happened?’

Lucifer made a frustrated growl and let Doug go. He paced the living room for a few moments, hands on his forehead as he fought the incoming panic attack. He should have never let Chloe come home alone. And where the hell was Maze anyway?

Once he had finally managed to get his emotions in check, he stopped and reached for his phone. It was time to call the station. He lifted the device, ready to unlock the screen, but a reflection in the black glass caught his attention. He had just enough time to recognise it as the glint of a blade and duck to the side before the knife whooshed through the air where he had just been. He twirled just in time to see Doug taking another swipe, this one barely missing him as he jumped away.

Lucifer moved so that the couch was between him and Doug and two men started circling it. ‘It’s you, isn’t it?’ he growled. ‘Where’s Chloe?’

Doug sneered. ‘Don’t worry, she’s getting her due punishment.’

Fear gripped Lucifer’s heart for a moment before the anger took over. His eyes flared red, causing Doug to pause and back up a step. ‘What-’ he started but he didn’t get the chance to finish before Lucifer was lunging at him with an inhuman snarl.

But Doug was fast. He dove out the way, swishing his knife wildly in Lucifer’s general direction. Lucifer hissed as Doug got in a lucky shot and the blade nicked him across the arm.

But the pain brought relief. Pain meant that Chloe was close by and, more importantly, still alive.

‘When I find her, you’d better pray that I find her unharmed,’ said Lucifer, his tone dark. He slowly advanced on Doug, who had accidentally backed himself into a corner and was trembling a little. But despite his obvious fear, Doug was still standing his ground, holding his knife out threateningly. Lucifer would have been impressed if he wasn't so ready to kill the man.

‘I don’t know what you are,’ Doug began, a little shakily, ‘but that bitch deserves to suffer.’

Lucifer felt his already considerable rage burn even hotter. Doug’s eyes widened as his skin started turning red and scarred, starting from his fingertips - now sharp claws - and slowly spreading until his devil-form had fully taken over. Lucifer smiled menacingly.

‘What I am is the Devil, and _I_ decide who deserves to be punished.’

The knife in Doug’s hand began shaking as his trembling increased tenfold, and Lucifer saw his chance. Quick as a flash, he lunged at Doug again, deftly ducking out the way of the blade. He grabbed the hand holding the knife and squeezed until he heard the satisfying crunch of bones breaking. Doug howled in pain and instantly dropped the weapon.

‘Now, answer my question,’ demanded Lucifer, his voice displaying all the power it held as King. ‘Where is she?!’

Doug struggled, trying to throw off Lucifer’s grip. Futile really. Lucifer gave him a few more seconds to answer but soon got impatient. Using the hand that was still holding Doug’s broken wrist, he twisted Doug around so that his arm was now behind his back, pulling just shy of dislocating. His other hand went to Doug’s throat.

‘Answer me!’

And finally, with the Devil quite literally at his back, Doug succumbed. ‘In-In my ap-partment,’ he stammered.

A wave of relief washed over Lucifer – Chloe was only next door – but it was short-lived. He still didn’t know what state Doug had left her in; she could be seconds away from death for all he knew. The beast within him raged at the thought, and the hand on Doug's throat instinctively tightened a little further. Already his mind was brimming with ideas of how to punish the vile soul who was squirming within his grasp – of how to make an example out him to ensure that no one ever dared come after Chloe again.

But he stopped himself. It was the thought of Chloe that made him rein himself in. She made him not want to be that man anymore. More than that, she reminded him that he didn’t _have_ to be that man. This was not Hell, and he did not hold the monopoly on punishment and justice.

So instead of tearing him apart like a big part of him wanted to, Lucifer spun Doug around, and punched him once and once only, just enough to knock him out cold. Doug crumpled like a sack of potatoes and was not likely to be waking up anytime soon, but Lucifer wasn’t taking any risks. He quickly ran to Chloe’s hallway cupboard and grabbed her extension cord. It wasn’t ideal, but he didn’t have time to see if there was a spare set of handcuffs or any rope hidden anywhere.

He had to get to Chloe. Dad only knew what Doug had done to her.

So he made quick work of Doug and, a minute later, he was rushing out of Chloe’s apartment, leaving her neighbour unconscious and hogtied on the living room floor.

When he got to Doug’s front door, he didn’t even bother with his lock trick - he didn’t bother to check to see if it even _was_ locked, he just gave it an almighty kick and the lock and both the hinges snapped like twigs as the door flew inwards.

The floor plan to Doug’s apartment was very similar to Chloe’s, so Lucifer had a clear view of most of the living space as soon as he stepped through the doorway. It only took him a second to find Chloe, taped to a chair in what classed as the dining room. She twisted her neck towards him, and the relief Lucifer felt at the sight of her turned to worry in an instant. There was blood streaking all down her face from her forehead where it looked like she had been carved into with a knife.

Thinking back to Doug’s victims, Lucifer realised that that was probably the case.

His eyes flared red again and his rage returned, but he resisted the urge to go back and give Doug a preview of the Hell that awaited him. Chloe was much more important right now.

Lucifer rushed through the apartment and squatted in front of Chloe, silently taking her in and checking for other injuries. He was relieved to find that there didn’t appear to be any. He took out his pocket square and used it to wipe away the blood from Chloe's eyes before pressing the material to her head wound. He had no idea if it would help, but they always put pressure on the wound in movies, so he guessed there was something in it.

‘Not to worry, Detective,’ he said, trying to make his voice sound jovial and failing miserably; it was way too raspy to be anything other than desperate. ‘We’ll get this stitched up in no time.’ He pulled out his phone with his free hand and dialled the familiar number of the station. He gave them a quick overview of the situation and ensured that an ambulance was on its way and then hung up, not interested in focusing on anything other than Chloe for a moment longer than necessary.

Now that the blood was mostly gone from her eyes, he could tell that they were a little droopy and very teary, most likely from the blood loss and the pain respectively. She mumbled something and only then did Lucifer realise that she still had a piece of tape over her mouth.

He used his free hand – the other still holding his now soaked pocket square to her head wound – to pull at the tape. He tried to go slow but the constant wincing from Chloe made him rethink his approach and he ultimately just ripped the whole thing off in one pull. Chloe’s whole body tensed at that but when she finally could speak, she only sounded relieved.

‘Lucifer,’ she breathed.

Lucifer chucked the crumpled piece of tape away and brought his hand up to cradle her face. ‘It’s all right, I got you.’

She gave what he assumed was supposed to be a smile but didn’t say anything more. He desperately wanted to free her from the chair, but he could tell that the tape was wrapped too tightly to do it with one hand. He turned his head, looking for something sharp, but there was nothing within reach.

There was, however, something else that caught his attention: a laptop sitting on the table in front of Chloe. And on the screen was a video of Chloe’s apartment; the image of a still bound and unconscious Doug proved that it was a live feed.

Chloe had seen everything.

Lucifer felt a wave of shame wash over him but he didn’t have time to dwell on it, the sound of ambulance sirens was fast approaching and help would arrive any minute. Sure enough, only a couple of minutes later, paramedics were rushing through the ruined doorway and ushering him out of the way so they could see to Chloe. He reluctantly stepped back, but when he saw the way they were going to attack the tape at Chloe’s wrists, he had to intervene. He could tell in an instant they would end up cutting her skin if they carried on the way they were.

‘Give it to me,’ he growled, snatching the scissors out of the paramedic's hand. ‘You’ll hurt her.’

He gripped the scissors in a very precise fashion, and then expertly sliced into the tape where Chloe’s wrists met the wood of the chair’s arm. One stroke was all it took to cut through the multiple layers and allow Lucifer to use his fingers to pull away the rest. He made quick work of Chloe’s three other limbs and then once again stepped aside to allow the paramedics to take over.

Now that Chloe was free, the paramedic who had been holding a fresh gauze to Chloe’s forehead gently urged her to stand, and the other one manoeuvred the stretcher so that she merely had to turn around for them to lower her onto it. The lack of protesting worried Lucifer; Chloe hated being carried around, always preferring to do things herself.

‘-ir? Sir?’ Lucifer snapped out of his worrying thoughts when he realised that one of the paramedics was speaking to him.

‘Sorry, what?’ he asked.

‘I asked whether you would like to ride on the ambulance with her.’

Lucifer gave a quick glance to the laptop screen which showed that the police and more paramedics had just arrived and were taking care of Doug. He knew he should probably stay to give his statement, but he wasn’t going to.

He turned back to the paramedic and nodded his assent before following them out the door. There was no way he was leaving Chloe’s side.

\----

A few hours later, Chloe had been stitched up and given a series of painkillers which had made Lucifer jealous.

‘How are you feeling, Detective?’ he asked for what was probably the tenth time since she got out of surgery. ‘Do you need anything else? Water? An extra pillow?’

Chloe smiled softly and shook her head. Lucifer tried not to let his eyes be drawn to the scars on her forehead that he could now see were in the shape of a “7”; every time he focused on them too much, his eyes had a tendency to turn red.

‘Lucifer, babe, I’m okay,’ said Chloe, obviously noticing his distress. Despite the painkillers, she was rather rational. He shouldn’t have been surprised really; Chloe was always sensible, even when she was high apparently.

She shuffled over on her hospital bed and patted the spot next to her. Lucifer hesitated for a moment but soon joined her on the uncomfortable bed. He considered throwing some favours about to acquire her something more suitable, but thought better of it, knowing she would be out of the hospital by the end of the night anyway. Then she could spend the rest of the night on sheets that had a thread count that at least made it into the triple digits. Higher if she let him take her back to the penthouse.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Chloe, pulling Lucifer’s gaze away from the scratchy subpar sheet they were laying on.

His brow crinkled. ‘What for?’ he asked, confused.

Chloe looked away, seemingly ashamed. ‘For stupidly letting myself become bait,’ she said. ‘I just wanted to protect you, but I ended up putting you in even more danger.’

Lucifer took Chloe’s hand in his and rubbed his thumb over hers. ‘That wasn’t your fault. And while going back to your apartment without Maze there wasn’t your smartest move,’- Maze had finally called him back and explained that she was in Vegas hunting a bounty -‘I understand why you wanted me to stay away. I would have done the same thing if our roles had been reversed.’

Chloe squeezed his hand; Lucifer wasn’t sure if it was out of gratitude or need for extra reassurance, but either way, he squeezed back. She let out a relieved sigh at that and then leaned her head against his shoulder.

After a couple of moments of comfortable silence, Lucifer decided to voice the question that had been worrying him.

‘Did you see?’ he asked. ‘On the laptop screen. Did you see what I did to Doug?’

‘Bits of it. It was a bit hard to focus, what with all the blood and pain and everything.’

Lucifer’s eyes flickered red for a second as the image of Chloe tied to the chair pushed itself to the forefront of his mind, but he quickly composed himself. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I never wanted you to see me like that. You don’t deserve to witness my monstrous side.’

‘I told you, I’m not afraid of your Devil-face anymore,’ said Chloe, sounding confused. ‘I haven’t been for a long time.’

Warmth spread across Lucifer at hearing her say those words – at hearing her _accepting_ him - but he didn’t let himself get his hopes up too much. ‘But it’s not just my face,’ he said. ‘I… Well, I crushed his hand for one. And I mean, properly crushed it. He’ll be having to use his other hand for wanking from now on because that one certainly won’t be gripping anything.’

He took a breath as he realised he was starting to ramble.

‘I almost killed him,’ he admitted softly. ‘I _wanted_ to kill him.’

‘But you didn’t,’ said Chloe as if it was the simplest thing in the world. ‘You stopped yourself… and isn’t that what you’ve been trying to do since you came back? Trying to not be the King of Hell anymore? Sure, crushing Doug’s hand may have been going a tad too far, and maybe you’re not fully there yet, but considering how personal this was, I don't think you should be too hard on yourself.’

Lucifer let out the breath he had been holding. ‘You truly are a miracle,’ he whispered.

Chloe made a noncommittal hum as she burrowed her head into the crook of his neck. Lucifer adjusted his position so that he could wrap an arm around her, allowing her to lay against him more comfortably.

‘I love you,’ she whispered, just loud enough for Lucifer to hear. ‘Thank you for saving me.’

Lucifer placed a kiss to Chloe’s hair, careful to avoid touching her forehead. ‘I’ll always save you.’

He said it like a vow. Because that’s what it was: a promise he had no intention of breaking. Ever.

Chloe smiled. ‘I guess we make a pretty good team then. Because I’ll always save you too.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I have started writing the Epilogue, I'm not sure if it will be done by next week, so there may be another small break sorry.


	13. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the wait. This chapter turned out a lot longer than intended, but here it is at last: the fluffy epilogue we all need after all those chapters of angst and tension.

It took a couple of weeks, but eventually things started going back to normal for Chloe. She was out of the hospital and back at work, she had stopped feeling paranoid in her own apartment, and she and Dan were back to their usual shared custody roster with Trixie.

Doug was behind bars, awaiting what would no doubt be a very short trial. He had confessed to everything. Literally _everything_. Up to and including a string of unrelated B&E offenses he committed in his youth. Cat burgling was a skill you kept for life, it seemed.

So, with everything settling down for the first time in what felt like years, Chloe decided to make the most of it before the next crisis arrived. And what better way to do that then by taking her gorgeous boyfriend on the date she had promised him.

The only problem was, where do you take an immortal millionaire who has not only been everywhere, but is also the reason a good deal of LA’s establishments even exist in the first place?

Chloe had spent literally hours agonising over that question. Any restaurant that she could afford to take him would just seem subpar compared to the 5 star places he was used to, and she had absolutely no interest on going on any of his “adventure dates”, so she was well and truly stuck. That was until Trixie had unknowingly solved her problem for her. While she had been telling Chloe all about her time with her dad, she had mentioned how they had gone to the roller derby, and Chloe had suddenly realised that she was going about the whole date thing the wrong way around. Instead of trying to think of something extravagant to match what Lucifer was used to, she should have been thinking of something mundane. Something ordinary that Lucifer would never have bothered to try before.

So she took him roller-skating.

Lucifer had been a bit sceptical at first, but had soon warmed up to idea when Chloe revealed that she had rented to whole rink for a couple of hours so there would be no other “sweaty humans” getting in their way and knocking into them. Once she had mentioned that they also had the option of creating their own playlist to skate to, it had been a done deal.

‘So how long do we have the place to ourselves?’ asked Lucifer as he and Chloe walked into the rink, brand new roller skates in hand (the horrified look on Lucifer’s face at the suggestion of renting skates had been priceless).

‘Two hours,’ answered Chloe, rechecking the time on her phone. They were 5 minutes early, but by the time they had talked to the person at the desk and put their skates on, the last of the stragglers should be gone.

Sure enough, by the time they were at the edge of the rink and ready to skate, the last customer was just leaving.

‘So, are you going to show me the moves?’ purred Lucifer, leaning in closer than necessary and waggling his eyebrows. Chloe couldn’t help but give him a quick appreciative glance over. He had forgone his suit for the day and was wearing a pair of dark jeans that fitted him perfectly, a black shirt, and the leather jacket that he had worn a lot when they had first started working together. It was a very different ensemble than what she was used to… but it was still just as tempting.

Chloe leaned in a bit further, as if going for a kiss, but at the last moment changed direction and moved her head so she was whispering in his ear. ‘Maybe later. But first I have to teach you how to skate.’

She pulled back, a satisfied smile on her face, and then glided out into the middle of the rink where she was out of his reach.

Lucifer smiled, impressed. ‘Well played, Detective.’

He pushed off the edge lightly, and Chloe had just enough time to skate back and catch him before he fell. Once he had regained his balance, he frowned at his feet. ‘I thought it would be like ice skating,’ he said.

‘You can ice skate?’ asked Chloe, though she realised that she shouldn’t have been so surprised.

Lucifer pulled his gaze away from his feet and shrugged. ‘Well, I haven’t done it in a couple of centuries, but it is rare for me to lose a skill.’

Chloe opened her mouth, ready to ask a million questions about when, where and with who he learned to ice skate, but then decided that they could wait for the drive home. ‘Well, roller-skating is similar,’ she explained, ‘but not exactly the same as you have four points of contact with the floor instead of just the one. Here, I’ll show you.’

She slowly let go of him, making sure he wasn’t going to fall, and then did a slow lap of the rink, making sure to make her moves obvious and not adding anything fancy into the mix. When she returned, Lucifer was smiling softly at her.

‘What?’ she asked, but Lucifer just shook his head.

‘Nothing, darling. Just admiring the view.’

Chloe blushed a little at that and then cleared her throat awkwardly. ‘So, did you want me to show you again, or do you wanna try with me?’

‘I think I see where I went wrong,’ he said. ‘Let’s give it a whirl.’

Chloe made to move in front of him so she could grab his hands and lead him – like she had done when teaching Trixie - but he was already off. This time, he didn’t stumble or flail at all, and Chloe just stared as he did a complete flawless lap by himself. When he returned, he looked very proud of himself.

‘Ah, yes, that is much easier,’ he said, smiling. ‘Though I think I still prefer ice skating.’

Chloe shook her head clear. ‘Of course you would be a natural at this,’ she said fondly, though a hint of disappointment laced her words. She had been quite looking forward to teaching him.

Lucifer smiled even prouder. ‘It seems I am, rather.’

Chloe laughed at that and then shook her head again, this time in exasperation. Could this man’s ego be any bigger?

‘All right, show off, let’s try a bit faster this time.’

Together, they did a few more laps of the rink, getting faster each time until it inevitably became a race. Chloe’s pride was restored a little when she won.

They spent the next couple of hours racing, chatting, and teaching Lucifer some more complicated moves, and by the time they had to leave, Chloe couldn’t have stopped smiling if she tried. It really had been a perfect date.

‘Well that was quite enjoyable,’ said Lucifer as he drove them out of the parking lot and back out into the reality of LA traffic.

Chloe hummed in agreement. ‘I’m glad you had fun.’

Lucifer’s features softened and he reached over to take Chloe’s hand in his. ‘I did.’

Chloe squeezed his hand tighter and smiled as she rested her head back against her seat. She was incredibly grateful that they had taken the corvette; the evening air felt marvellous on her flushed skin.

It was about ten minutes before she realised that they were going the wrong way for Lux. And they were definitely nowhere near her apartment. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked, looking around to see if she recognised anything.

Lucifer grinned. ‘Well I thought that since you had organised the daytime portion of our date, I might surprise you with some evening plans.’

Chloe raised an eyebrow but couldn’t fight the grin that appeared on her own face. ‘Did you now? So where are we going?’

‘I told you, it’s a surprise.’

Chloe let out a huff of laughter at that and settled back into her seat, trying to decide if she should be worried or excited.

A short time later, the corvette was pulling up at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills and Chloe’s jaw dropped.

Lucifer’s grin widened.

Ever the gentleman, he opened her car door for her and held out a hand to help her out of the vehicle; Chloe only managed a last minute “thank you” before she was back to stunned silence. It wasn’t until they were at reception getting their room keys that Chloe finally snapped herself out of her stupor and realised that she was in a 5-star hotel wearing frayed jeans and an *NSYNC t-shirt.

She suddenly felt very self-conscious.

Thankfully, the receptionist didn’t comment or give her any odd looks, though that may have been more to do with the fact that she barely tore her eyes away from Lucifer, not that Chloe could blame her. Even after two hours of racing around a skating rink, he still looked immaculate – not a hair out of place.

Lucifer took the keycards from the receptionist with a smile and Chloe shoved her insecurities away as he led her towards the elevators. It was a nice surprise, if a little intimidating, and Chloe was determined not to ruin it for herself.

The elevator ride was filled with comfortable silence and an air of anticipation. Chloe watched the little numbers above the doors, her eyebrows rising with each floor they passed, until they eventually stopped and the doors opened with a swoosh.

The penthouse suite; Chloe really should have guessed.

‘So, what do you think?’ asked Lucifer as he led her into the main space of their suite.

Chloe looked around the room in awe. Now that it was just her and Lucifer again, she felt a lot more comfortable and was back to being able to properly take in the luxury that she could never hope to afford.

‘It’s… uh… wow. I didn’t think hotels could be this nice.’ She bit back the question of how much it cost and instead focussed on something else. She wandered over to the window, from which she could see almost all of Beverly Hills. ‘And the view is amazing!’

Lucifer came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle. ‘I’m glad you like it, because I’ve made reservations for dinner at the Rooftop.’

‘There’s a restaurant on the roof?’

‘Yep,’ he said, popping the p at the end. ‘And since your offspring is with Daniel for the weekend, I booked the room for two nights. No interruptions, no unwanted guests or hidden cameras. Just us. Total privacy.’

Chloe spun in Lucifer’s arms and pulled him in for a short but thorough kiss. ‘It’s perfect,’ she said, her eyes shining with gratitude. ‘But I don’t have anything to wear.’ She gestured to her sweat stained clothes. ‘I can’t wear this to somewhere this fancy, it was bad enough walking through the lobby.’

Lucifer kissed her again, just a quick peck on the lips this time. ‘You look perfect.’ Chloe opened her mouth to reiterate, but he cut her off. ‘ _Buuuut_ , I did have Maze pack you a bag.’

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door and when Lucifer opened it, two men walked in carrying two suitcases and a couple of garment bags that quite obviously held Lucifer’s suits. ‘Ah, thank you, gentlemen,’ said Lucifer. ‘Just on the bed is fine. Oh-’ he grabbed the garment bags ‘-except for these, thank you. They can go straight in the wardrobe.’

Chloe watched with a fond smile as he fussed over his suits as he went to hang them up in the walk-in wardrobe. (Seriously, who needed a walk-in wardrobe when staying at a hotel?) When he returned, he tipped the men with what Chloe highly suspected were hundred-dollar bills.

Once the men had left, he turned back to Chloe with a smile. ‘So, we have an hour before our reservation, plenty of time to familiarise you with all the luxuries on offer.’

So used to his innuendos, it took a moment for Chloe to figure out that he was talking about the hotel suite and not himself. ‘I think perhaps, just the shower to start with,’ she said. Lucifer’s eyes lit up with mischief. ‘Separate showers,’ she clarified. ‘You may be fine, Mr-I’m-a-Celestial-and-don’t-know-what-sweat-is, but the human very much needs to freshen up after two hours of exercise.’

Lucifer’s smile turned sultry as he stalked towards her. ‘In that case’ he purred, resting his hands on her hips, ‘you will be becoming very familiar with the shower this weekend, because I plan on making sure you get _plenty_ of "exercise".’

And there was that innuendo.

Chloe rolled her eyes good-naturedly and gave him a playful shove. ‘Come on, get off. I really do need a shower.’

Lucifer did as he was asked, though his smirk remained firmly in place. He directed her towards the master bathroom and it was only the previous experience of seeing Lucifer’s own bathroom that kept Chloe's jaw off the floor. To say the room was indulgent would have been an understatement. The shower and spa bath were both massive and an array of small shampoo and lotion bottles seemed to be lined along every edge.

Chloe eyed the spa bath longingly but ultimately chose the shower; she didn’t really have enough time to wait for the tub to fill up and still be able to have a proper soak. She had all weekend to enjoy the bath, she reasoned. 

And it would be much more enjoyable with Lucifer joining her, the little voice at the back of her mind whispered, making Chloe’s skin flush with heat.

She quickly shook her head and shoved those thoughts away. For the moment at least. Right now, she had a dinner to get ready for.

After a good 15 minutes of enjoying the warm water cascading over her while she experimented with a variety of different lotions – and yes, they definitely smelled as nice as their fancy labels suggested – Chloe got out of the shower and towelled herself off. She wiped the steam off the mirror to check her reflection, her gaze travelling to her forehead where a faint number “7” was still visible. Lucifer had hired the best plastic surgeon in the country, but there was only so much they could do. Thankfully, the scars were quite thin and easily covered up with make-up, so she didn’t have to see the reminder of the terrible experience every time she saw her reflection or had her picture taken.

She tore her gaze away from the mirror and, towel securely in place around her body, wandered into the bedroom to search for her suitcase. Hopefully Maze had packed something suitable, but, knowing her, it was all probably leather and lingerie.

Chloe let out a breath of relief when she opened her case to see her own clothes. They were even (mostly) folded. However, as she rummaged through them, her frown returned. While she was grateful to have her normal comfortable clothes at her disposal, there didn’t seem to be anything fancy enough for a restaurant in a 5-star hotel.

‘Lucifer?’ she called out, hoping that maybe there was a dress for her in one of the garment bags he had put in the wardrobe. When she got no reply, she looked around and her eyes quickly fell on a note left on the bedside table.

_Detective,_

_I have gone to the Rooftop ahead of time. The chef is a personal acquaintance so I thought I would pay her a visit while I let you get dressed in privacy. I will be waiting for you there once you are ready. Take all the time you need._

He had signed it with a hand drawn devil emoji and Chloe smiled even as she rolled her eyes. She put the note down and then went to check the wardrobe herself, but still found no dress. Accepting defeat, she wandered back over to her suitcase and selected her pink sweater and her nicest pair of jeans. Thankfully the boots that Maze had packed her both went well with the outfit and were nice enough to be acceptable for a restaurant setting.

Once she had laid out her outfit on her bed, she returned to her suitcase, this time in search of underwear, something that Maze had obviously paid the most interest in. While there had been nothing overly fancy in her clothes selection, Maze had taken the complete opposite approach when packing Chloe’s delicates. There was a total one plain and comfortable bra and pants set; and the rest consisted of every piece of lingerie Chloe owned as well as some she didn’t. Chloe made a face at the new ones, but then she noticed that the tags were still on, meaning they were new and not from Maze’s personal collection.

Feeling brave, Chloe decided on one of the new sets: a deep red one with just a hint of decorative lace. She was unsurprised to find that it fit her perfectly.

After chucking on the rest of her clothes, she grabbed her makeup kit and hairbrush out of her suitcase and returned to the bathroom.

Her scar was the first thing to be covered up.

After about 20 minutes and far too much scrutinising, Chloe was finally happy with her look. She sent Lucifer a quick text to let him know she was on her way and then left to find the Rooftop restaurant.

It didn’t take long, and when she arrived, Lucifer was instantly at her side.

‘Ah, there you are,’ he said. ‘Come and meet Veronica, the chef. One of the best in the business and she has assured me that she will make us anything we desire, on the menu or not.’

Chloe let him lead her through the perfectly set tables and perfectly dressed people to a door that was just off to the side of the bar where Veronica was waiting. She was a small but fierce looking woman with a kind smile that contradicted the rest of her features.

‘Ah, so you are the detective Lucifer has been gushing about,’ she said as soon as they approached.

Lucifer, far from ashamed, smiled proudly. ‘Indeed, she is.’

Chloe shook Veronica’s hand and introduced herself properly and the three of them chatted for a few minutes before Veronica’s chef duties called her away.

‘She seems nice,’ said Chloe as Lucifer led her to their reserved table.

‘Oh, she is,’ he said as he pulled out a chair for Chloe. ‘When she’s not working here, she runs a free cooking class at her local community hall.’

He took the seat opposite her and a second later, a waiter was at their table, asking for their drink orders. Once he was gone, Chloe took the chance to properly admire the venue.

‘This place is… way above my paygrade.’ She let out a breath of shaky laughter before turning back to face Lucifer. She couldn’t help but notice that he was now wearing his usual suit attire, sans vest. ‘Are you sure I look okay?’ she asked, suddenly anxious. ‘Maze didn’t pack me any dresses.’

Lucifer reached across the table and took Chloe’s hand. ‘You look absolutely gorgeous,’ he said, leaning forward a little so he could kiss her knuckles. ‘And I specifically told Maze to only pack clothes you would be comfortable in.’

Chloe’s brow furrowed. ‘You did?’

Lucifer nodded. ‘I wanted to show you that you don’t have to “look the part”. You’re perfect, even in sensible brown shoes, and I’m more than proud to be the lucky bastard that gets to walk by your side.’

Chloe smiled through the happy tears that were starting to form. ‘Thank you, Lucifer,’ she whispered. She carefully wiped her eyes and then cleared her throat to try and get rid of the hoarseness. ‘And I’m proud too, you know’ she said, her voice now even. ‘Having you in my life is one of the best things that has ever happened to me.’

Lucifer grinned at that. ‘Well, of course it is. Before me, you had Daniel: an incredibly low bar to surpass.’

And just like that, the mood was broken, but Chloe wasn’t upset. The comment was so very Lucifer that all she could do was shake her head and laugh.

The waiter returned with their drinks and Chloe and Lucifer ordered their food. The menus didn’t have prices on them, instantly letting Chloe know that they were expensive, but she didn’t comment. This was Lucifer’s night, and if he wanted to spoil her, well just this once she wasn’t going to argue.

The wait for the food was filled with wine, talk and laughter, and as the night went on, Chloe found herself becoming more relaxed. She forgot about the other people in the room who may or may not be judging her, and she just let herself be herself.

When the food arrived, Chloe almost moaned at how good it tasted. Lucifer was right, Veronica was indeed “one of the best”.

Lucifer smirked at her reaction but thankfully didn’t make any innuendos.

After dinner came desert, and this time, Chloe did let out a small moan. Chocolate lava cake was her weakness. Sue her.

Once desert was done and there was no longer any reason to stay apart from admiring the view, Chloe and Lucifer bid Veronica good night and returned to their room, hand in hand. Chloe sighed in relief when she was finally able to take off her boots; they weren’t normally uncomfortable to walk in, but her feet were still a little sore from the skating earlier.

She sat down on the bed and began to rub her foot absentmindedly. ‘Tonight was perfect,’ she said, smiling up at Lucifer. ‘Thank you.’

Lucifer smiled back. ‘I’m glad you liked it. And thank you for letting me spoil you for a change.’

Chloe laughed. ‘You always spoil me.’

Case in point: Lucifer had knelt in front of her and was now taking her aching foot in his hands. He started an expert massage and Chloe bit back a groan at how good it felt; she really should have known he would be great at this.

‘I mean properly spoil you,’ continued Lucifer. ‘With something that your sensible brain would never allow yourself to indulge in.’ He let go of her foot and instructed her to lift the other one.

‘You don’t have to,’ said Chloe, referring to both the spoiling and the foot massage.

‘But I want to.’

He looked up at her and Chloe was almost blown away by the sincerity she saw in his eyes. There was no ulterior motive or manipulation… just an honest desire to make her happy.

‘Come here,’ she told him, reaching down to try and tug him upwards by his forearms. He came willingly and Chloe wasted no time in pressing her lips to his in a soft kiss, aching feet totally forgotten.

Lucifer slowly pulled away from the kiss but didn’t move out of her space, and it was only then that Chloe realised that he was kneeling between her legs, his warm hands on her hips where he had settled them during the kiss.

Lucifer didn’t seem to have noticed their position; he was still wearing the same adoring smile that had been on his face for the majority of the day. Chloe loved that smile… but right now, her mind was imagining the many other things that mouth could be doing. The first thing being kissing her again.

Chloe moved her hands up to cup his face, and this time when she kissed him, it was with a lot more fire. She had been a slave to her insecurities for so long; it was time for her to take what she had wanted for so long.

Lucifer instantly recognised the change in atmosphere, meeting Chloe with a fiery passion of his own, and it wasn’t long before he was taking control of the kiss and urging her mouth open so that he could slip his tongue inside. Chloe moaned and tried to pull him closer so that his body was flush against hers.

‘You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to hear you make those sounds,’ said Lucifer once they had pulled away from each other again. His eyes were dark and his voice was laced with so much want that Chloe nearly moaned again from that alone.

Neither of them mentioned the fact that he had already heard her make those sounds during their ill-fated phone sexcapade. There was no need to dwell on spoiled memories. All that mattered was here and now.

This time, it was Lucifer who leaned in for the kiss, but he didn’t linger; he soon moved from Chloe’s lips to her jaw, before finally settling on the spot where her shoulder met her neck. Chloe breathed his name in response, eliciting a groan from Lucifer which she felt more than heard. Her hands moved on their own accord, and by the time Lucifer had moved away from her neck and Chloe could think clearly again, she had undone three of his shirt buttons.

For a moment, Chloe worried that she was being too eager, but then Lucifer grinned and her confidence returned. She undid the rest of his buttons and waited with bated breath while he shrugged it off along with his suit jacket.

Now that his perfectly tanned skin was on display, Chloe couldn’t resist the temptation to drag her hands down it, starting from his shoulders all the way down to his belt. She bit her lip as she contemplated undoing it, not sure if she wanted to tease him a little more first.

An insistent tug at the hem of her sweater made the decision for her, and she moved her hands away from Lucifer’s waist and raised her arms so he could pull the garment off. His eyes darkened when he saw her newly acquired lingerie and Chloe made a mental note to thank Maze for the purchase.

Now it was Lucifer’s turn to explore, and it was soon obvious that he was intending to be a bit more thorough than Chloe had been. At first, his hands travelled a similar path to that Chloe’s had done on him, but then he leaned forward and repeated the journey with his lips and tongue. Chloe sighed his name, and when she felt him slowly push her backwards, she willingly let herself fall.

As Lucifer’s lips got closer to her waist, she felt nimble fingers dip under the waistband of her jeans, and she lifted herself up onto her elbows so she could get a proper look at what he was doing. The sight that greeted her was one that would fuel her fantasies for the rest of her life and then some. Lucifer, kneeling on the floor between her spread legs, shirtless, and looking up at her with raw desire as he slowly undid the button of her jeans.

His eyes never left hers as he undid her zipper and hooked his fingers under the waistband. ‘May I?’ he asked. Chloe nodded and lifted her hips a little to help him remove the currently unwanted denim.

Once her jeans were off, Lucifer’s gaze finally left Chloe’s and swept over her body. Chloe had been worried that she would feel insecure or intimidated – Lucifer had quite the reputation, after all – but the lust in his eyes made her feel powerful and wanted.

‘You’re so gorgeous,’ he breathed.

That certainly helped too.

‘You’re not so bad yourself,’ said Chloe, her own eyes hungrily raking over him. The line may have been corny, but Lucifer preened anyway. ‘But I think you’re a bit overdressed.’

Lucifer’s pleased grinned turned absolutely sinful. ‘Patience, Detective,’ he tutted and then he leaned back down to place a small kiss at her hip. ‘We have _all_ night.’

Chloe sucked in a breath at the implication, her stomach tightening with anticipation.

Lucifer continued to lavish her body with tiny open-mouthed kisses and Chloe flopped back down onto the bed. She closed her eyes, letting herself enjoy the way Lucifer’s mouth was seemingly finding every single one of her sensitive spots.

Finally, after having apparently mapped the rest of her body, Lucifer’s fingers traced along the outside of her underwear and hooked under it. ‘Gorgeous,’ he repeated, and then, without warning, he ripped it clean off her. Chloe opened her eyes with a start and looked down at him in shock as he casually threw the tattered scrap of fabric over his shoulder.

‘That was brand new!’ she protested, though it was weakened by the obvious fact that she had found the display incredibly hot.

‘I’ll buy you another set,’ Lucifer promised, and then his lips descended on her, rendering Chloe incapable of arguing anymore.

‘Fuck!’ she shouted, her hands shooting forwards to grab at his hair. It helped her ground herself enough to remember not to buck up into him, but she couldn’t quite stop the small roll of her hips. She had heard several first-hand accounts of how good he was with his mouth, but they hadn’t quite prepared her for his skill. He seemed to know exactly when her clit needed attention and exactly how much pressure to apply.

After a few minutes, Chloe started to let out embarrassing little whimpers, but she was long past the point of caring. ‘Please, Lucifer,’ she whispered, rolling her hips on purpose this time. ‘I’m so close.’

She felt him grin against her and for a second, she thought that he was going to keep teasing her, but then she felt a finger prod at her entrance and slowly slide in. Lucifer lips closed around her clit and began to suckle as his finger curled upwards, quickly finding that perfect spot inside her.

Chloe cried out as her orgasm overtook her and she gripped Lucifer’s hair tighter, keeping him where he was. After an undetermined amount of time had passed and her high had fizzled into smaller zaps of aftershocks, she loosened her grip and let him go.

‘Good?’ asked Lucifer, though it was obvious he knew all too well how good he was. 

Chloe let out a breathless huff of laughter and nodded. ‘Amazing.’

She may have still been staring at the ceiling, but she could still tell that he was wearing that smug smirk of his. So, after a few more seconds to get her breath back, she sat up so she could kiss it off his face. It didn’t quite work, the too-proud look in his eyes still remained, but that was okay. He had every reason to be proud; he had just given her her best orgasm in _years_.

She was eager to return the favour.

‘Up,’ she said, gesturing with her hands that she wanted him to stand.

Lucifer’s eyes twinkled with mischief. ‘I assure you, I already am.’

Chloe almost rolled her eyes at him.

‘I meant stand up.’

Lucifer continued to smirk but complied with her request. The smirk fell, however, when Chloe didn’t rise with him, instead her hands went straight to his belt. She got quite a lot of satisfaction out of seeing his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed thickly.

When the belt was undone and freed from its loops, it was quickly disposed of, and Chloe bit her lip as her hands returned to Lucifer’s zipper; she was aware that he did not always wear underwear, and she was fairly certain that this would be such an occasion.

Sure enough, when she slowly pulled the zip down and parted the fabric of his dress pants, she was met with skin rather than the silk of his boxers. It was by no means the first time Chloe had seen his cock – he did seem to have a habit of stripping in public – but it was the first time she had seen it this close. Or this aroused.

This time it was Chloe who swallowed thickly. All of Lucifer’s bragging made a lot more sense now. He was certainly… impressive.

A ragged plea of her name came from above her and she looked up to see that Lucifer’s pupils were blown so wide his eyes were basically black with want.

Her confidence returning, she smiled up at him and then returned her attention to right in front of her. Deciding a little payback was in order, she ducked her head forward without warning and licked a long stripe up the underside of his length. She hadn’t been quite able to reach the base, his pants still being in the way, but he was big enough for it to not really matter.

Lucifer let out a deep groan, and his abdominal muscles twitched as he fought to keep his composure.

But Chloe was having none of that. She wanted him as wrecked as he had made her.

She moved the fabric of his pants out of the way, letting them fall down his legs, and then got to work. She may not have had the experience Lucifer had – that would have been quite impossible – but it was not like she was a nun. She had moves and she intended to use them.

It didn’t take long at all for her to make that control of his crumble.

With a growl that was a little too low to be totally human, Lucifer reached down and hauled her to her feet. She chuckled at his eagerness but it was soon muffled by his lips crashing to hers.

‘I want you so bloody much,’ he whispered, pulling away from the kiss only just long enough to get the words out. His lips moved down to her neck again and Chloe let out a few gasping breaths.

‘Then have me,’ she said, feeling bold.

The sound that Lucifer made at that was _definitely_ not human, and a second later, Chloe found herself on her back in the centre of the bed. Lucifer kicked off his trousers, removing his shoes and socks as he did so, and then gave Chloe a lustful once over before pouncing.

Chloe giggled as he once again lavished her neck with kisses. Her giggles quickly turned into moans however as he rocked his hips against hers, his erection brushing her sensitive flesh. Lucifer pulled away from her neck and stared into her eyes as he very purposely repeated the movement.

‘Condom,’ said Chloe, breathing heavily. ‘Now.’

Lucifer nodded his agreement, and for a second, his irises flashed red.

Chloe wasn’t going to lie to herself; _that_ had been a huge turn on.

But it was something to be explored another time, she decided as Lucifer reached over her to open the bedside draw. He pulled out a condom and Chloe had just enough time to wonder when he put it in there before she was distracted by him opening the packet and then rolling the latex down his length, giving himself a few pumps as he did so.

They locked eyes as he positioned himself between her thighs. Chloe gave him a small nod of consent and he slowly pushed forwards.

Chloe fought to keep her eyes open at the feeling of him finally _finally_ filling her inch by glorious inch; she didn’t want to miss a single expression on Lucifer’s face. Watching him, she could see her own emotions reflected back at her: desire, pleasure, relief, and most of all, love. Only when he was buried as deep as he could go did she let her eyelids flutter closed.

‘You feel so good,’ she said without really meaning to.

‘You too,’ groaned Lucifer. ‘Fuck, Chloe, you have no idea how good you feel.’

A shiver ran up her body at the praise and she rolled her hips experimentally. Lucifer’s hands stilled her, however.

‘Just one second,’ he said, voice strained. Chloe opened her eyes and grinned at the almost pained look on his face. It seemed she had pushed him closer to the edge than she had realised.

After a few moments - definitely more than “one second” - Lucifer began to move. He started with slow short thrusts and then gradually picked up his speed until they had found a rhythm that worked well for the both of them. After that, Chloe lost track of time all together. All that mattered to her was the feel of Lucifer’s weight above her and the soft litany of praises that he was groaning into her ear.

She didn’t even realise when he reached behind her arching back to unclasp her bra, only noticing the difference once the straps had slid down to her elbows. She reluctantly released her hold on Lucifer’s shoulders so she could shrug the bra off and fling it into an unseen corner of the room.

She gasped as Lucifer suddenly dipped his head to mouth at the newly revealed flesh.

After a few moments of letting him do as he pleased, her hands settled into his hair and she pulled him up for sloppy kiss. Then she was pushing him back down again, this time to the other breast.

‘So demanding,’ Lucifer teased; she could feel his smile against her skin. ‘Lucifer likes.’ And to prove his point, he gave a particularly hard thrust that cut off any witty reply Chloe had had any hope of making.

‘Yes, just like that,’ she groaned, and Lucifer repeated the movement.

Chloe soon found herself approaching climax for the second time that night and she started to roll her hips with more urgency.

‘You’re close, aren’t you?’ said Lucifer, lifting his head from her chest.

Chloe nodded frantically. ‘So close. Lucifer. Please, just a little m-’ Lucifer changed the angle of his thrusts a fraction and the rest of Chloe’s sentence was lost in a scream of pleasure as her orgasm hit.

As she slowly came down, she noticed the sound of Lucifer chanting a string of expletives along with her own name above as his thrusts grew increasingly erratic. She opened her eyes just in time to see his face scrunch up in pleasure as he reached his own release.

Another sight to fuel her fantasies, Chloe was sure.

Once he had come down and had stopped twitching inside her, Lucifer slipped out of her and groaned as he flopped down onto the bed beside her. ‘That was…’ he began but trailed off, seemingly unable to finish his sentence.

‘Incredible,’ Chloe finished for him, turning her head to smile at him lazily.

He let out a huff of breathless laughter. ‘Definitely one way to put it.’ He reached over and pulled her head close so he could kiss her, much more sweetly than their last few passion filled kisses.

‘I love you,’ whispered Chloe once he had pulled away.

‘And I you, Chloe.’ He gave her another quick kiss. ‘But I’m afraid I’m going to have to ruin our moment and go clean up.’ His eyes flicked down to his groin where he was holding the used condom.

Chloe blushed a little. ‘I’d better clean up too,’ she said, and she reluctantly rolled over so she could get out of bed. She stood up and paused, suddenly very aware of her unclothed state. She spied Lucifer’s dress shirt not far from her feet and quickly bent over to scoop it up. She heard Lucifer chuckle a little as she slid it on and wrapped the too loose fabric around her, but otherwise, he didn’t comment.

She cleaned up as quickly as possible, and when she returned to the bedroom, Lucifer was already waiting for her underneath the covers. He patted the spot beside him. ‘A little rest before round two,’ he said.

Chloe rolled her eyes even if her stomach tightened in anticipation and want. She could definitely understand why all those people had said being with him was the bets night of their lives. One taste and she was already addicted.

But first a post-coital snuggle and pillow talk sounded perfect.

After crawling under the covers, Chloe instantly cuddled up into Lucifer’s side and let out a sigh of contentment. ‘I suppose I should go check on my demons,’ he said, making her instantly pull away again to look up at him in concern and confusion. ‘It must be awfully chilly down there now,’ he explained, a twinkle in his eye. ‘What with Hell freezing over and all.’

Chloe let herself relax, remembering the jibe that she had thrown at him back before they had started their partnership and all he had wanted from her was sex.

_When Hell freezes over, Lucifer._

‘Well, if it has, you can use those skating skills of yours, then,’ she teased once her heartrate had returned to normal and she could appreciate the joke.

Lucifer chuckled and placed a quick kiss to her forehead, right above her scars. ‘I think I’d much rather stay right here,’ he said, no longer teasing. ‘With you.’

Chloe looked up at him, her heart so filled with love, she felt it would burst.

‘Me too.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you everybody for reading, commenting and leaving kudos.


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